LUTHER. 
(Prom  a  Portrait  by  Cranach  in  the  Town  Chnrch  at  Weimar.) 


LIFE    OF    LUTHEE 


BY 


JULIUS    KOSTLIN 


WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS  from    AUTHENTIC    SOURCES 

university] 

TßANSLATED    FROM    THE    GERMAN 


NEW  YORK 
CHARLES     SCRIBNER'S     SONS 

1883 


J,  ^3  ^3 


AUTHOR'S    DEDICATION 

TO 

MY     DEAR     WIFE 
PAULINE 


WITH     THE    WORDS    OP     LUTHER 


*  God's  highest  gift  on  earth  is  to  have  a  pious, 
cheerful»  God-fearing,  home-keeping  wife 


AUTHOE'S   PEEFACE, 


No  German  has  ever  influenced  so  powerfully  as  Luther 
the  religious  life,  and,  through  it,  the  whole  history,  of  his 
people ;  none  has  ever  reflected  so  faithfully,  in  his  whole 
personal  character  and  conduct,  the  peculiar  features  of 
that  life  and  history,  and  been  enabled  by  that  very  means 
to  render  us  a  service  so  effectual  and  so  popular.  If  we 
recall  to  fresh  life  and  remembrance  the  great  men  of 
past  ages,  we  Germans  shall  always  put  Luther  in  the 
van  :  for  us  Protestants,  the  object  of  our  love  and  venera- 
tion, who  will  not  prevent,  however,  or  prejudice  the  most 
candid  historical  inquiry;  for  others,  a  rock  of  offence, 
whom  even  slander  and  falsehood  will  never  overcome. 

I  have  already  in  my  larger  work,  *  Martin  Luther :  his 
Life  and  Writings,'  2  vols.,  1875,  put  together  all  the 
materials  available  for  that  subject,  together  with  the 
necessary  references,  historical  and  critical,  and  have 
endeavoured  to  explain  and  illustrate  at  length  the  subject 
matter  of  his  various  writings.     I  now  offer  this  sketch 


X  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 

of  his  life  to  the  wide  circle  of  what  are  called  educated 
German  readers.  For  further  explanations  and  proofs  of 
statements  herein  contained  I  would  refer  them  to  my 
larger  work.  Further  investigation  has  prompted  me  to 
make  some  alterations,  but  only  a  few,  in  matters  of 
detail. 

For  the  illustrations  and  illustrative  documents  I  beg 
to  express  my  warm  thanks,  and  those  of  the  pubUsher,  to 
the  friends  who  have  kindly  assisted  us  in  the  work. 

J.  KÖSTLIN, 
Professor  at  the  University  of  Halle -Wittenberg. 

Oct.  31,  1881,  the  anniversary  of  Luther's  95  Theses. 


CONTENTS. 


PAET  I. 

LUTHER'S  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH,   UP  TO  HIS 
ENTERING  THE  CONVENT.— U8B-1505. 

CHAPTHR  PAGE 

I.    Birth  and  Parentage 1 

II.    Childhood  and  School-days 10 

III.     Student-days  at  Erfurt  and  Entry  into  the  Convent. — 1501- 

1505 28 


PAET  II. 

LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR,  UNTIL 
HIS  ENTRY  ON  THE  WAR  OF  REFORMATION. 
—1505-1617. 

I.    At  the  Convent  at  Erfurt,  till  1508 40 

II.    Call  to  Wittenberg.    Journey  to  Eome 57 

III.    Luther  as  Theological  Teacher,  to  1517 64 


PAET  III. 

THE    BREACH  WITH  ROME,    UP  TO  THE  DIET 
OF  WORMS.— 1517-1521. 

I.    The  Ninety-five  Theses .82 

II.    The  Controversy  concerning  Indulgences     .        .        .        .     .      95 
III.    Luther  at  Augsburg  before  Caietan.    Appeal  to  a  Council       .     108 


xii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

IV.     Miltitz  and  the  Disputation  at  Leipzig,  with  its  Eesults     .    .  122 
v.    Luther's  further  Work,  Writings,  and  Inward  Progress  until 

1520 150 

VI.     Alliance  with  the  Humanists  and  Nobility 168 

VII.     Crisis  of  Secession  :  Luther's  Works — to  the  Christian  Nobility 

of  the  German  Nation,  and  on  the  Babylonian  Captivity    .  188 

VIII.     The  Bull  of  Exconnnunication,  and  Luther's  Reply    .        .    .  203 

IX.    The  Diet  of  Worms 222 


PAET  IV. 

FROM    THE    DIET    OF    WORMS    TO    THE  PEA- 
S ANTS'    WAR  AND  LUTHER'S  MARRIAGE. 

I.    Luther  at  the  Wartburg,  to  his  Visit  to  Wittenberg  in  1521     .     246 
II.     Luther's  further  Sojourn  at  the  Wartburg,  and  his  Eeturn  to 

Wittenberg,  1522 263 

III.  Luther's  Reappearance  and  fresh  Labours  at  Wittenberg,  1522  273 

IV.  Luther  and  his  anti-Catholic  work  of  Reformation,  up  to  1525  286 
-  V.  The  Reformer  against  the  Fanatics  and  Peasants,  up  to  1525  304 
VI.  Luther's  Marriage 325 


PAET  V. 

LUTHER  AND  THE  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE 
CHURCH,  TO  THE  FIRST  RELIGIOUS  PEACE. 
—1525-1532. 

I.     Survey •        .    .  336 

II.     Continued  Labours  and  Personal  Life 344 

III.    Erasmus  and  Henry  VIII.    Controversy  with  Zwingli  and  his 

Followers,  up  to  1528 372 


CONTENTS.  xiii 

CttAPTER  PAGE 

IV.    Church  Divisions  in  Germany.    War  with  the  Turks.     The 

Conference  at  Marburg,  1529 384 

V.    The  Diet  of  Augsburg,  and  Luther  at  Coburg,  1530      .        .     .  402 

VI.    From  the  Diet  of  Augsburg  to  the  Eeligious  Peace  of  Nurem- 
berg, 1532.     Death  of  the  Elector  John       .        .         .        .427 


PAET  VI. 

FBOM  THE  RELIGIOUS  PEACE  OF  NUREMBERG 
TO   THE   DEATH  OF  LUTHER. 

I.     Luther  under  John  Frederick 443 

II.  Negotiations  respecting  a  Council  and  Union  among  the  Pro- 
testants. The  Legate  Vergerius,  1535.  The  Wittenberg 
Concord,  1536 462 

III.  Negotiations  respecting  a  Council  and  Union  among  the  Pro- 

testants (continued).     The  Meeting  at  Schmalkald,  1537.     475 
Peace  with  the  Swiss 

IV.  Other  Labours   and  Proceedings,  1533-39.    The  Archbishop 

Albert  and  Schönitz.     Agricola  ......     489 

V.  Luther  and  the  Progress  and  Internal  Troubles  of  Protes- 
tantism, 1538-41 502 

VI.  Luther  and  the  Progress  and  Internal  Troubles  of  Protes- 
tantism (continued),  1541-44 518 

"  VII.     Luther's  Later  Life  ;  Domestic  and  Personal  .     .     534 

VIII.    Luther's  Last  Year  and  Death 560 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTEATIONS. 


FIG.  PAGE 

Luther.    (From  a  Portrait  by  Cranach  in  the  Town  Church  at 
Weimar) Frontispiece 

1.  Coat  op  Arms 2 

2.  Hans  Luther 6 

3.  Margaret  Luther 7 

4.  Luther's  Cell  at  Erfurt 44 

5.  Staupitz.     (From  the  Portrait  in  St.  Peter's  Convent  at  Salzburg)  52 
Facsimile  from  Luther's  Psalter,  at  WolfenbiJttel       to  face  65 

6.  Title  and  Preface  of  Penitential  Psalms 75 

7.  Spalatin.     (From  L.  Cranach's  Portrait) 77 

8.  Erasmus.     (From  the  Portrait  by  A.  Dürer) 79 

9.  Leo  X.     (From  his  Portrait  by  Eaphael) 83 

Facsimile  of  Placard  of  Indulgences,  1517  to  face    84 

10.  The  Archbishop  Albert.     (From  Dürer's  engraving)       .        .     .     85 

11.  Title-page   of  a  Pamphlet  written  at  the  beginning  op  the 

Beformation,  with  an  Illustration  showing  the  Sale  of  Indul- 
gences                 ......     87 

12.  The  Castle  Church.      (From  the  Wittenberg    Book  of  Belies, 

1509) .    90 

IB.  The  Emperor  Maximilian.     (From  his  Portrait  by  Albert  Dürer)  128 

14.  Duke  George  of  Saxony.     (From  an  old  woodcut)        .        .        .  134 

15.  Luther.     (From  an  engraving  of  Cranach,  in  1520) .        .        .     .  140 

16.  Dr.  John  Eck.    (From  an  old  woodcut) 142 

17.  Melancthon.     (From  a  Portrait  by  Dürer)         .        .        .        .     .  153 

18.  Lucas  Cranach.    (From  a  Portrait  by  himself)      ....  157 

19.  W.  PiRKHEiMER.     (From  a  Portrait  by  Albert  Dürer)         .        .     .  173 

20.  Ulrich  von  Hütten.     (From  an  old  woodcut)       ....  177 

21.  Francis  von  Sickingen.    (From  an  old  engraving)    .        .        .    .  181 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  xv 

PAGE 

Title-page  op  the  second  edition  of  Luther's  Treatise  to  the 

Christian  Nobility  of  the  German  Nation      ....  197 
Title-page,  slightly  reduced,  of  the  original  Tract  '  On  the  Liberty 

of  a  Christian  Man  ' 207 

Charles  V.  (From  an  engraving  by  B.  Beham,  in  1531)  .  .  225 
Luther.  (From  an  engraving  by  Cranach,  in  1521) .  .  .  .  237 
Luther  as  "  Squire  George."  (From  a  woodcut  by  Cranach)  .  247 
BuGENHAGEN.     (From  a  picture   by   Cranach  in  his  album,   at 

Berlin,  1543) 278 

MÖNZER.    (From  an  old  woodcut) 323 

Luther.  (From  a  Portrait  by  Cranach  in  1525.)  At  Wittenberg  .  332 
Catharine   von   Bora,    Luther's  wife.    (From    a    Portrait    by 

Cranach  about  1525.)     At  Berlin 333 

Luther's  Eing  from  Catharine 334 

Luther's  Double  King 334 

The   Saxon   Electors,  Frederick  the   Wise,   John,   and  John 
Frederick.     (From  a  Picture  by  Cranach.)    At  Nuremberg       .  338 

Facsimile  op  Frederick's  signature 339 

Philip  op  Hesse.  (From  a  woodcut  of  Brosamer)  .  .  .341 
Luther.  (From  a  Portrait  by  Cranach  in  1528.)  At  Berlin  .  .  362 
Luther's  Wife.    (From   a  Portrait  by  Cranach  in  1528.)    At 

Berlin 363 

ZwiNGLi.     (From  an  old  engraving) 375 

Facsimile  of  the  Superscription  and   Signature  to   the   Mar- 
burg Articles 397 

Veit  Dietrich,  as  Pastor  of  Nuremberg.  (From  an  old  woodcut)  406 
Luther's  Seal.  (Taken  from  letters  written  in  1517)  .  .  .  416 
Luther's  Coat  of  Arms.  (From  old  prints)  ....  416 
BuTZER.  (From  the  old  original  woodcut  of  Beusner)  .  .  .  460 
Agricola.  (From  a  miniature  Portrait  by  Cranach,  in  the  Uni- 
versity Album  at  Wittenberg,  1531) 497 

Jonas.    (From  a  Portrait  by  Cranach,  in  his  Album  at  Berlin, 

1543) 619 

Amsdorf.     (From  an  old  woodcut)  .        .        .        .        .        .  522 

Luther.     (From  a  Portrait  by  Cranach,  in  his  Album,  at  ^Berlin)  535 

Wittenberg.    (From  an  old  engraving) 537 

The  "  Luther-House  "  (previously  the  Convent),  before  its  re- 
cent restoration 538 

Luther's  Room 539 

Luther's  Daughter  'Lene.'  (From  Cranach 's  Portrait)  .  .545 
Door  of  Luther's  House  at  Wittenberg 549 


xvi  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

FIO.  PAGE 

53.  Mathesiüs.     (From  an  old  woodcut) 555 

54.  Luther  in  1546.     (From  a  woodcut  of  Cranach)      .         .         .     .  570 

55.  Jonas'  Glass 571 

56.  Address  of  Luther's  Letter  of  February  7         ....  575 

57.  Luther  after  Death.     (From  a  Picture  ascribed  to  Cranach)      .  579 

58.  Cast  of  Luther  after  Death.     (At  Halle) 580 

Facsimile  of  part  of  the  Edict  of  Worms,  8  May  (1521),  being 

the  title  and  conclusion,  with  the  signature  of  the  Emperor 
Charles 584 

Title  and  Commencement  op  the  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew,  in 
THE  FIRST  Edition  of  the  New  Testament,  1522.  (From  the 
original  in  tiie  Eoyal  Public  Library  at  Stuttgart)  .        .        .     .  586 

Facsimile  of  concluding   portion   of   Luther's  Well,  with  the  i 
attestations   of    Melancthon,  Cruciger,   and   Bugenhagen.     (At  \  rg 
Pesth)  .         .         . Li 

Facsimile  of  Letter  of  Luther   to   his  Wife,  of  February  7,    '^ 
1546.     (At  Breslau) j 


Erratum, 

Page  70,  line  20— for  imputed  read  infused. 


X^^       or  THE  ^ 

university; 
luthee's  life 


PART  I. 

LUTHER'S  CHILDHOOD  AND   YOUTH   UP  TO   HIS 
ENTERING  THE  CONVENT.— US3-W0b. 


CHAPTER  I. 

BIRTH    AND    PARENTAGE. 


On  the  10th  of  November,  1483,  their  first  child  was  born  to 
a  young  couple,  Hans  and  Margaret  Luder,  at  Eisleben,  in 
Saxony,  where  the  former  earned  his  living  as  a  miner.  That 
child  was  Martin  Luther. 

His  parents  had  shortly  before  removed  thither  from 
Möhra,  the  old  home  of  his  family.  This  place,  called  in 
old  records  More  and  More,  lies  among  the  low  hills  where 
the  Thuringian  chain  of  wooded  heights  runs  out  westwards 
towards  the  valley  of  the  Werra,  about  eight  miles  south  of 
Eisenach,  and  four  miles  north  of  Salzungen,  close  to  the 
railway  which  now  connects  these  two  towns.  Luther  thus 
comes  from  the  very  centre  of  Germany.  The  ruler  there 
was  the  Elector  of  Saxony. 

Möhra  was  an  insignificant  village,  without  even  a 
priest  of  its  own,  and  with  only  a  chapel  afiiliated  to  the 
church  of  the  neighbouring  parish.  The  population  con- 
sisted  for  the  most  part   of  independent   peasants,   with 

B 


2  LUTHER'S  CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 

house  and  farmstead,  cattle  and  horses.  Mining,  more- 
over, was  heing  carried  on  there  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  copper  was  heing  discovered  in  the  copper  schist,  of 
which  the  names  of  Schieferhalden  and  Schlackenhaufen 
still  survive  to  remind  us.  The  soil  was  not  very  favourable 
for  agriculture,  and  consisted  partly  of  moorland,  w^hich  gave 
the  place  its  name.  Those  peasants  who  possessed  land 
were  obliged  to  work  extremely  hard.  They  w^ere  a  strong 
and  sturdy  race. 

From  this  peasantry  sprang  Luther.  *I  am  a  pea- 
sant's son,'  he  said  once  to  Melancthon  in  conversation. 
*  My  father,  grandfather — all  my  ancestors  were  thorough 
peasants.' 

His  father's  relations  were  to  be  found  in  several 
families  and  houses  in  Möhra,  and  even  scattered  in  the 
country  around.  The  name  was  then  written  Luder,  and 
also  Ludher,  Lüder,  and  Lender.  We  find  the  name  of 
Luther  for  the  first  time  as  that  of  Martin  Luther,  the 
Professor  at  Wittemberg,  shortly  before  he  entered  on  his 
war  of  Reformation,  and  from  him  it  was  adopted  by  the 
other  branches  of  the  family.  Originally  it  was 
not  a  surname,  but  a  Christian  name,  identical 
with  Lothar,  which  signifies  one  renowned  in 
battle.  A  very  singular  coat  of  arms,  consist- 
j^2.  ii^g  ^^  ^  cross-bow,  with  a  rose  on  each  side, 
^    .    ,  had   been    handed  down  through,   no    doubt, 

Coat  of  arms.  °    '  ' 

many  generations  in  the  family,  and  is  to  be 
seen  on  the  seal  of  Luther's  brother  James.  The  origin 
of  these  arms  is  unknown ;  the  device  leads  one  to  con- 
clude that  the  family  must  have  blended  with  another 
by  intermarriage,  or  by  succeeding  to  its  property.  Con- 
temporaneous records  exist  to  show  how  conspicuously 
the  relatives  of  Luther,  at  Möhra  and  in  the  district, 
shared  the  sturdy  character  of  the  local  peasantry,  always 
ready  for  self-help,  and  equally  ready  for  fisticuffs.  Firmly 
and  resolutely,  for  many  generations,  and  amidst  grievous 


BIRTH  AND  PARENTAGE.  3 

persecutions  and  disorders,  such  as  visited  Möhra  in 
particular  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  this  race  main- 
tained its  ground.  Three  famihes  of  Luther  exist  there  at 
this  day,  who  are  all  engaged  in  agriculture  ;  and  a  striking 
likeness  to  the  features  of  Martin  Luther  may  still  be 
traced  in  many  of  his  descendants,  and  even  in  other  in- 
habitants of  Möhra.  Not  less  remarkable,  as  noted  by 
one  who  is  familiar  with  the  present  people  of  the  place, 
are  the  depth  of  feeling  and  strong  common  sense  which 
distinguish  them,  in  general,  to  this  day.  The  house  in 
which  Luther's  grandfather  lived,  or  rather  that  which  was 
afterwards  built  on  the  site,  can  still,  it  is  believed,  but  not 
with  certainty,  be  identified.  Near  this  house  stands  now 
a  statue  of  Luther  in  bronze. 

At  Möhra,  then,  Luther's  father,  Hans,  had  grown  up  to 
manhood.  His  grandfather's  name  was  Henry,  but  of  him 
we  hear  nothing  during  Luther's  time.  His  grandmother 
died  in  1521.  His  mother's  maiden  name  was  Ziegler;  we 
afterwards  find  relations  of  hers  at  Eisenach ;  the  other  old 
account,  which  made  her  maiden  name  Lindemann,  pro- 
bably originated  from  confusing  her  with  Luther's  grand- 
mother. 

What  brought  Hans  to  Eisleben  was  the  copper  mining, 
which  here,  and  especially  in  the  county  of  Mansfeld,  to 
which  Eisleben  belonged,  had  prospered  to  an  extent  never 
known  around  Möhra,  and  was  even  then  in  full  swing  of 
activity.  At  Eisleben,  the  miners'  settlements  soon  formed 
two  new  quarters  of  the  town.  Hans  had,  as  we  know,  two 
brothers,  and  very  possibly  there  were  more  of  the  family, 
so  that  the  paternal  inheritance  had  to  be  divided.  He 
was  evidently  the  eldest  of  the  brothers,  of  whom  one,  Heinz, 
or  Hen^y,  who  owned  a  farm  of  his  own,  was  still  living  in 
1540,  ten  years  after  the  death  of  Hans.  But  at  Möhra 
the  law  of  primogeniture,  which  vests  the  possession  of  the 
land  in  the  eldest  son,  was  not  recognised ;  either  the  pro- 
perty was  equally  divided,  or,  as  was  customary  in  other 


4  LUTHER'S  CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 

parts  of  the  country,  the  estate  fell  to  the  share  of  the 
youngest.  This  custom  was  referred  to  m  after  years  by 
Luther  m  his  remark  that  in  this  world,  according  to  civil 
law,  the  youngest  son  is  the  heir  of  his  father's  house. 

We  must  not  omit  to  notice  the  other  reasons  which 
have  been  assigned  for  his  leaving  his  old  home.  It  has 
been  repeatedly  asserted,  in  recent  times,  and  even  by  Pro- 
testant writers,  that  the  father  of  our  great  Eeformer  had 
sought  to  escape  the  consequences  of  a  crime  committed  by 
him  at  Möhra.  The  matter  stands  thus  :  In  Luther's  life- 
time his  Catholic  opponent  Witzel  happened  to  call  out  to 
Jonas,  a  friend  of  Luther's,  in  the  heat  of  a  quarrel,  '  I 
might  call  the  father  of  your  Luther  a  murderer.'  Twenty 
years  later  the  anonymous  author  of  a  polemical  work 
which  appeared  at  Paris  actually  calls  the  Eeformer  *  the 
son  of  the  Möhra  assassin.'  With  these  exceptions,  not  a 
trace  of  any  story  of  this  kind,  in  the  writings  of  either 
friend  or  foe,  can  be  found  in  that  or  in  the  following  cen- 
tury. It  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
in  an  official  report  on  mining  at  Möhra,  that  the  story, 
evidently  based  on  oral  tradition,  assumed  all  at  once  a 
more  definite  shape ;  the  statement  being  that  Luther's 
father  had  accidentally  killed  a  peasant,  who  was  mind- 
ing some  horses  grazing.  This  story  has  been  told  to 
travellers  in  our  own  time  by  people  of  Möhra,  who  have 
gone  so  far  as  to  point  out  the  fatal  meadow.  We  are 
forced  to  notice  it,  not,  indeed,  as  being  in  the  least 
authenticated,  but  simply  on  account  of  the  authority 
recently  claimed  for  the  tradition.  For  it  is  plain  that 
what  is  now  a  matter  of  hearsay  at  Möhra  was  a  story 
wholly  unknown  there  not  many  years  ago,  was  first 
introduced  by  strangers,  and  has  since  met  with  several 
variations  at  their  hands.  The  idea  of  a  criminal  flying 
from  Möhra  to  Mansfeld,  which  was  only  a  few  miles  ofi", 
and  was  equally  subject  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  is  absurd, 
and  in  this  case  is  strangely  inconsistent  with  the  honour- 


BIRTH  AND  PARENTAGE.  % 

able  position  soon  attained,  as  we  shall  see,  by  Hans  Luther 
himself  at  Mansfelcl.  Moreover,  the  very  fact  that  Witzel's 
spiteful  remark  was  long  known  to  Luther's  enemies, 
coupled  with  the  fact  that  they  never  turned  it  to  account, 
shows  plainly  how  little  they  ventured  to  make  it  a  matter 
of  serious  reproach.  Luther  during  his  lifetime  had  to 
hear  from  them  that  his  father  was  a  Bohemian  heretic, 
his  mother  a  loose  woman,  employed  at  the  baths,  and  he 
himself  a  changeling,  born  of  his  mother  and  the  Devil. 
How  triumphantly  would  they  have  talked  about  the  murder 
or  manslaughter  committed  by  his  father,  had  the  charge 
admitted  of  proof !  Whatever  occurrence  may  have  given 
rise  to  such  a  story,  we  have  no  right  to  ascribe  it  either 
to  any  fault  or  any  crime  of  the  father.  More  on  this  sub- 
ject it  is  needless  to  add ;  the  two  strange  statements  we 
have  mentioned  do  not  attempt  to  establish  any  definite 
connection  between  the  supposed  crime  and  the  removal  to 
Eisleben. 

The  day,  and  even  the  very  hour,  when  her  first-born 
came  into  the  world,  Luther's  mother  carefully  treasured 
in  her  mind.  It  was  between  eleven  and  twelve  o'clock  at 
night.  Agreeably  to  the  custom  of  the  time,  he  was 
baptised  in  the  Church  of  St.  Peter  the  next  day.  It  was 
the  feast  of  St.  Martin,  and  he  was  called  after  that  saint. 
Tradition  still  identifies  the  house  where  he  was  born ;  it 
stands  in  the  lower  part  of  the  town,  close  to  St.  Peter's 
Church.  Several  conflagrations,  which  devastated  Eisleben, 
have  left  it  undestroyed.  But  of  the  original  building  only 
the  waUs  of  the  ground-floor  remain  :  within  these  there  is  a 
room  facing  the  street,  which  is  pointed  out  as  the  one 
where  Luther  first  saw  the  light.  The  church  w^as  rebuilt 
soon  after  his  birth,  and  was  then  called  after  St.  Peter  and 
St.  Paul ;  the  present  font  still  retains,  it  is  said,  some 
portions  of  the  old  one. 

When  the  child  was  six  months  old,  his  parents  removed 
to   the  town  of  Mansfeld,  about  six  miles  off.     So  great 


6 


LUTHER'S  CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 


was  the  number  of  the  mmers  who  were  then  crowding 
to  Eisleben,  the  most  important  place  in  the  county,  that 
we  can  well  understand  how  Luther's  father  failed  there 
to  realise  his  expectations,  and  went  in  search  of  better 
prospects  to  the  other  capital  of  the  rich  mining  district. 
Here,  at  Mansfeld,  or,  more  strictly,  at  Lower  Mansfeld, 


Fig.  2.— Haks  Luthek. 

as  it  is  called,  from  its  position,  and  to  distinguish  it  from 
Cloister-Mansfeld,  he  came  among  a  people  whose  whole 
life  and  labour  were  devoted  to  mining.  The  town  itself 
lay  on  the  banks  of  a  stream,  inclosed  by  hills,  on  the  edge 
of  the  Harz  country.  Above  it  towered  the  stately  castle 
of  the  Counts,  to  whom  the  place  belonged.     The  character 


BIRTH  AND  PARENTAGE. 


of  the  scenery  is  more  severe,  and  the  air  harsher  than  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Möhra.  Luther  himself  called  his 
Mansfeld  countrymen  sons  of  the  Harz.  In  the  main, 
these  Harz  people  are  much  rougher  than  the  Thuringians. 
Here  also,  at  first,  Luther's  parents  found  it  a  hard 
struggle  to  get  on.     '  My  father,'  said  the  Eeformer,  '  was  a 


Fig.  3. — Marüaket  Luther. 


poor  miner ;  my  mother  carried  in  all  the  wood  upon  her 
back ;  they  worked  the  flesh  off  their  bones  to  bring  us  up  : 
no  one  nowadays  would  ever  have  such  endurance.'  It  must 
not,  however,  be  forgotten  that  carrying  wood  in  those  days 
was  less  a  sign  of  poverty  than  now.  Gradually  their  affairs 
improved.     The  whole  working  of  the  mines  belonged  to 


8  LUTHER'S  CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 

the  Counts,  and  they  leased  out  smgle  portions,  called 
smelting  furnaces,  sometimes  for  lives,  sometimes  for  a 
term  of  years.  Hans  Luther  succeeded  in  obtaining  two 
furnaces,  though  only  on  a  lease  of  years.  He  must  have 
risen  in  the  esteem  of  his  town- fellows  even  more  rapidly 
than  in  outward  prosperity. 

The  magistracy  of  the  town  consisted  of  a  bailiff,  the 
chief  landowners,  and  four  of  the  community.  Among 
these  four  Hans  Luther  appears  in  a  public  document  as 
early  as  1491.  His  children  were  numerous  enough  to 
cause  him  constant  anxiety  for  their  maintenance  and 
education :  there  were  at  least  seven  of  them,  for  we  know 
of  three  brothers  and  three  sisters  of  the  Reformer.  The 
Luther  family  never  rose  to  be  one  of  the  rich  families  of 
Mansfeld,  who  possessed  furnaces  by  inheritance,  and  in 
time  became  landowners ;  but  they  associated  with  them, 
and  in  some  cases  numbered  them  among  their  intimate 
friends.  The  old  Hans  was  also  personally  known  to  his 
Counts,  and  was  much  esteemed  by  them.  In  1520  the 
Reformer  publicly  appealed  to  their  personal  acquaintance 
with  his  father  and  himself,  against  the  slanders  cumulated 
about  his  origin.  Hans,  in  course  of  time,  bought  himself 
a  substantial  dwelling-house  in  the  principal  street  of  the 
town.  A  small  portion  of  it  remains  standing  to  this  day. 
There  is  still  to  be  seen  a  gateway,  with  a  well-built  arch  of 
sandstone,  which  bears  the  Luther  arms  of  cross-bow  and 
roses,  and  the  inscription  J.L.  1530.  This  was,  no  doubt, 
the  work  of  James  Luther,  in  the  year  when  his  father  Hans 
died,  and  he  took  possession  of  the  property.  It  is  only 
quite  recently  that  the  stone  has  so  far  decayed  as  to  cause 
the  arms  and  part  of  the  inscription  to  peel  off. 

The  earliest  personal  accounts  that  we  have  of  Luther's 
parents,  date  from  the  time  when  they  already  shared  in 
the  honour  and  renown  acquired  by  their  son.  They  fre- 
quently visited  him  at  Wittenberg,  and  moved  with  simple 
dignity   among    his    friends.      The    father,    in   particular, 


BIRTH  AND  PARENTAGE.  9 

M elancthoD  describes  as  a  man,  who,  by  purity  of  character 
and  conduct,  won  for  himself  universal  affection  and 
esteem.  Of  the  mother  he  says  that  the  worthy  woman, 
amongst  other  virtues,  w^as  distinguished  above  all  for  her 
modesty,  her  fear  of  God,  and  her  constant  communion 
with  God  in  prayer.  Luther's  friend,  the  Court-preacher 
Spalatin,  spoke  of  her  as  a  rare  and  exemplary  woman. 
As  regards  their  personal  appearance,  the  Swiss  Kessler 
describes  them  in  1522  as  small  and  short  persons,  far 
surpassed  by  their  son  Martiiit  in  height  and  build ;  he 
adds,  also,  that  they  were  dark-complexioned.  Five  years 
later  their  portraits  were  painted  by  Lucas  Cranach  :  these 
are  now  to  be  seen  in  the  Wartburg,  and  are  the  only  ones 
of  this  couple  which  we  possess.^  In  these  portraits,  the 
features  of  both  the  parents  have  a  certain  hardness ;  they 
indicate  severe  toil  during  a  long  life.  At  the  same  time, 
the  mouth  and  eyes  of  the  father  wear  an  intelligent,  lively, 
energetic,  and  clever  expression.  He  has  also,  as  his  son 
Martin  observed,  retained  to  old  age  a  '  strong  and  hardy 
frame.'  The  mother  looks  more  wearied  by  life,  but 
resigned,  quiet,  and  meditative.  Her  thin  face,  with  its 
large  bones,  presents  a  mixture  of  mildness  and  gravity. 
Spalatin  was  amazed,  on  seeing  her  for  the  first  time  in 
1522,  how  much  Luther  resembled  her  in  bearing  and 
features.  Indeed,  a  certain  likeness  is  observable  between 
him  and  her  portrait,  in  the  eyes  and  the  lower  part  of  the 
face.  At  the  same  time,  from  what  is  known  of  the  appear- 
ance of  the  Luthers  who  lived  afterwards  at  Möhra,  he 
must  also  have  resembled  his  father's  family. 

'  strange  to  say,  subsequently  and  even  in  our  own  days,  a  portrait  of 
Martin  Luther's  wife  in  her  old  age  has  been  mistaken  for  one  of  his 
mother. 


lo  LUTHER'S   CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 


CHAPTEE  II. 

CHILDHOOD    AND    SCHOOLDAYS. 

As  to  the  childhood  of  Martin  Luther,  and  his  further 
growth  and  mental  development,  at  IMansfeld  and  else- 
where, we  have  absolutely  no  information  from  others  to 
enlighten  us.  For  this  i^ortion  of  his  life  we  can  only 
avail  ourselves  of  occasional  and  isolated  remarks  of  his 
own,  partly  met  with  in  his  writings,  partly  culled  from  his 
lips  by  Melancthon,  or  his  physician  Eatzeberger,  or  his 
pupil  Mathesius,  or  other  friends,  and  by  them  recorded 
for  the  benefit  of  posterity.  These  remarks  are  very  im- 
perfect, but  are  significant  enough  to  enable  us  to  under- 
stand the  direction  w^hicli  his  inner  life  had  taken,  and 
which  prepared  him  for  his  future  calling.  Nor  less 
significant  is  the  fact  that  those  opponents  who,  from  the 
commencement  of  his  war  with  the  Church,  tracked  out 
his  origin,  and  sought  therein  for  evidence  to  his  detriment, 
have  failed,  for  their  part,  to  contribute  anything  new 
whatever  to  the  history  of  his  childhood  and  youth,  al- 
though, as  the  Eeformer,  he  had  plenty  of  enemies  at  his 
own  and  his  parents'  home,  and  several  of  the  Counts  of 
Mansfeld,  in  particular,  continued  in  the  Eomish  Church. 
There  was  nothing,  therefore,  dark  or  discreditable,  at  any 
rate,  to  be  found  attaching  either  to  his  home  or  to  his 
own  youth. 

It  is  said  that  childhood  is  a  Paradise.  Luther  in  after 
years  found  it  joyful  and  edifying  to  contemplate  the 
happiness  of  those  little  ones  who  know  neither  the  cares 
of  daily  life  nor  the  troubles  of  the  soul,  and  enjoy  with 


CHILDHOOD  AND  SCHOOLDAYS.  ii 

light  hearts  the  good  thing  which  God  has  given  them. 
But  in  his  own  reminiscences  of  Hfe,  so  far  as  he  has  given 
them,  no  such  sunny  childhood  is  reflected.  The  hard 
time,  which  his  parents  at  first  had  to  struggle  through  at 
Mansfeld,  had  to  be  shared  in  by  the  children,  and  the  lot 
fell  most  hardly  on  the  eldest.  As  the  former  spent  their 
days  in  hard  toil,  and  persevered  in  it  with  unflinching 
severity,  the  tone  of  the  house  was  unusually  earnest  and 
severe.  The  upright,  honourable,  industrious  father  was 
honestly  resolved  to  make  a  useful  man  of  his  son,  and 
enable  him  to  rise  higher  than  himself.  He  strictly  main- 
tained at  all  times  his  paternal  authority.  After  his  death, 
Martin  recorded,  in  touching  language,  instances  of  his 
father's  love,  and  the  sweet  intercourse  he  was  permitted 
to  have  with  him.  But  it  is  not  surprising,  if,  at  the  period 
of  childhood,  so  peculiarly  in  need  of  tender  affection,  the 
severity  of  the  father  was  felt  rather  too  much.  He  was 
once,  as  he  tells  us,  so  severely  flogged  by  his  father  that 
he  fled  from  him,  and  bore  him  a  temporary  grudge.  Luther, 
in  speaking  of  the  discipline  of  children,  has  even  quoted 
his  mother  as  an  example  of  the  way  in  which  parents, 
with  the  best  intentions,  are  apt  to  go  too  far  in  punishing, 
and  forget  to  pay  due  attention  to  the  peculiarities  of  each 
child.  His  mother,  he  said,  once  whipped  him  till  the  blood 
came,  for  having  taken  a  paltry  little  nut.  He  adds,  that, 
in  punishing  children,  the  apple  should  be  placed  beside 
the  rod,  and  they  should  not  be  chastised  for  an  offence 
about  nuts  or  cherries  as  if  they  had  broken  open  a 
money-box.  His  parents,  he  acknowledged,  had  meant  it 
for  the  very  best,  but  they  had  kept  him,  nevertheless, 
so  strictly  that  he  had  become  shy  and  timid.  Theirs, 
however,  was  not  that  unloving  severity  which  blunts  the 
spirit  of  a  child,  and  leads  to  artfulness  and  deceit.  Their 
strictness,  well  intended,  and  proceeding  from  a  genuine 
moral  earnestness  of  purpose,  furthered  in  him  a  strictness 
and  tenderness  of  conscience,  which  then  and  in  after  years 


12  LUTHER'S   CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 

made  him  deeply  and  keenly  sensitive  of  every  fault  com- 
mitted in  the  eyes  of  God ;  a  sensitiveness,  indeed,  which, 
so  far  from  relieving  him  of  fear,  made  him  apprehensive  on 
account  of  sins  that  existed  only  in  his  imagination.  It 
%Yas  a  later  consequence  of  this  discipline,  as  Luther  him- 
self informs  us,  that  he  took  refuge  in  a  convent.  He  adds, 
at  the  same  time,  that  it  is  better  not  to  spare  the  rod 
with  children  even  from  the  very  cradle,  than  to  let  them 
grow  up  without  any  punishment  at  all ;  and  that  it  is 
pure  mercy  to  young  folk  to  bend  their  wills,  even  though  it 
costs  labour  and  trouble,  and  leads  to  threats  and  blows. 

We  have  a  reference  by  Luther  to  the  lessons  he  learned 
in  childhood  from  his  experience  of  poverty  at  home,  in  his 
remarks  in  later  life,  on  the  sons  of  poor  men,  who  by 
sheer  hard  work  raise  themselves  from  obscmity,  and  have 
much  to  endure,  and  no  time  to  strut  and  swagger,  but 
must  be  humble  and  learn  to  be  silent  and  to  trust  in  God, 
and  to  whom  God  also  has  given  good  sound  heads. 

As  to  Luther's  relations  with  his  brothers  and  sisters  we 
have  the  testimony  of  one  who  knew  the  household  at 
Mansfeld,  and  particularly  his  brother  James,  that  from 
childhood  they  were  those  of  brotherly  companionship, 
and  that  from  his  mother's  own  account  he  had  exercised 
a  governing  influence  both  by  word  and  deed  on  the  good 
conduct  of  the  younger  members  of  the  family. 

His  father  must  have  taken  him  to  school  at  a  very 
early  age.  Long  after,  in  fact  only  two  years  before  his 
death,  he  noted  down  in  the  Bible  of  a  *  good  old  friend,' 
Emler,  a  townsman  of  Mansfeld,  his  recollection  how,  more 
than  once,  Emler,  as  the  elder,  had  carried  him,  still  a 
weakly  child,  to  and  from  school ;  a  proof,  not  indeed,  as  a 
Catholic  opponent  of  the  next  century  imagined,  that  it 
was  necessary  to  compel  the  boy  to  go  to  school,  but  that 
he  was  still  of  an  age  to  benefit  by  being  carried.  The 
school-house,  of  which  the  lower  portion  still  remains,  stood 
at  the  ui^per  end  of  the  little  town,  part  of  which  runs 


CHILDHOOD  AND   SCHOOLDAYS.  13 

with  steep  streets  up  the  hill.  The  children  there  were 
taught  not  only  reading  and  writing,  but  also  the  rudiments 
of  Latin,  though  doubtless  in  a  very  clumsy  and  mechanical 
fashion.  From  his  experience  of  the  teaching  here,  Luther 
speaks  in  later  years  of  the  vexations  and  torments  with 
declining  and  conjugating  and  other  tasks  which  school 
children  in  his  youth  had  to  undergo.  The  severity  he 
there  met  with  from  his  teacher  was  a  very  different  thing 
from  the  strictness  of  his  parents.  Schoolmasters,  he  says, 
in  those  days  were  tyrants  and  executioners,  the  schools 
were  prisons  and  hells,  and  in  spite  of  blows,  trembling, 
fear,  and  misery,  nothing  was  ever  taught.  He  had  been 
whi2)ped,  he  tells  us,  fifteen  times  one  morning,  without  any 
fault  of  his  own,  having  been  called  on  to  repeat  what  he 
had  never  been  taught. 

At  this  school  he  remained  till  he  was  fourteen,  when 
his  father  resolved  to  send  him  to  a  better  and  higher-class 
place  of  education.  -  He  chose  for  that  purpose  Magdeburg ; 
but  what  particular  school  he  attended  is  not  known.  His 
friend  Mathesius  tells  us  that  the  town- school  there  was 
'  far  renowned  above  many  others.'  Luther  himself  says 
that  he  went  to  school  with  the  Null- brethren.  These  Null- 
brethren  or  Noll-brethren,  as  they  w^ere  called,  were  a 
brotherhood  of  pious  clergymen  and  laymen,  who  had  com- 
bined together,  but  without  taking  any  vows,  to  promote 
among  themselves  the  salvation  of  their  souls  and  the 
practice  of  a  godly  life,  and  to  labour  at  the  same  time 
for  the  social  and  moral  welfare  of  the  people,  by  preaching 
the  Word  of  God,  by  instruction,  and  by  spiritual  ministra- 
tion. They  undertook  in  particular  the  care^  of  youth. 
They  were,  moreover,  the  chief  originators  of  the  great 
movement  in  Germany,  at  that  time,  for  promoting  in- 
tehectual  culture,  and  reviving  the  treasures  of  ancient 
Eoman  and  Greek  literature.  Since  1488  a  colony  of  them 
had  existed  at  Magdeburg,  which  had  come  from  Hildesheim, 
one  of  their  head-quarters.    As  there  is  no  evidence  of  heir 


14  LUTHER'S   CHILDHOOD  AND   YOUTH. 

having  had  a  school  of  their  own  at  Magdeburg,  they  may 
have  devoted  their  services  to  the  town-school.  Thither, 
then,  Hans  Luther  sent  his  eldest  son  in  1497.  The  idea 
had  probably  been  suggested  by  Peter  Eeinicke,  the  overseer 
of  the  mines,  who  had  a  son  there.  With  this  son  John, 
who  afterwards  rose  to  an  important  office  in  the  mines  at 
Mansfeld,  Martin  Luther  contracted  a  lifelong  friendship. 
Hans,  however,  only  let  his  son  remain  one  year  at 
Magdeburg,  and  then  sent  him  to  school  at  Eisenach. 
Whether  he  was  induced  to  make  this  change  by  finding 
his  expectations  of  the  school  not  sufficiently  realised,  or 
whether  other  reasons,  possibly  those  regarding  a  cheaper 
maintenance  of  his  son,  may  have  determined  him  in  the 
matter,  there  is  no  evidence  to  show.  What  strikes  one 
here  only  is  his  zeal  for  the  better  education  of  his  son. 

Eatzeberger  is  the  only  one  who  tells  us  of  an  incident 
he  heard  of  Luther  from  his  own  lips,  during  his  stay  at 
Magdeburg,  and  this  was  one  which,  as  a  physician,  he 
relates  with  interest.  Luther,  it  happened,  was  lying  sick 
of  a  burning  fever,  and  tormented  with  thirst,  and  in  the 
heat  of  the  fever  they  refused  him  drink.  So  one 
Friday,  when  the  people  of  the  house  had  gone  to  church, 
and  left  him  alone,  he,  no  longer  able  to  endure  the  thirst, 
crawled  off  on  hands  and  feet  to  the  kitchen,  where  he 
drank  off  with  great  avidity  a  jug  of  cold  water.  He  could 
reach  his  room  again,  but  having  done  so  he  fell  into  a  deep 
sleep,  and  on  waking  the  fever  had  left  him. 

The  maintenance  his  father  was  able  to  afford  him  was 
not  sufficient  to  cover  the  expenses  of  his  board  and  lodging 
as  well  as  of  his  schooling,  either  at  Magdeburg  or  after- 
wards at  Eisenach.  He  was  obliged  to  help  himself  after 
the  manner  of  poor  scholars,  who,  as  he  tells  us,  went 
about  from  door  to  door  collecting  small  gifts  or  doles  by 
singing  hymns.  '  I  myself,'  he  says,  *  was  one  of  those 
young  colts,  particularly  at  Eisenach,  my  beloved  town.' 
He  would  also  ramble  about  the  neighbourhood  with  his 


CHILDHOOD  AND  SCHOOLDAYS.  15 

school-fellows ;  and  often,  from  the  pulpit  or  the  lecturer's 
chair,  would  he  tell  little  anecdotes  about  those  days.  The 
boys  used  to  sing  quartettes  at  Christmas-time  in  the 
villages,  carols  on  the  birth  of  the  Holy  Child  at  Bethlehem. 
Once,  as  they  were  singing  before  the  door  of  a  solitary 
farmhouse,  the  farmer  came  out  and  called  to  them  roughly, 
'  Where  are  you,  young  rascals  ? '  He  had  two  large  sausages 
in  his  hand  for  them,  but  they  ran  away  terrified,  till  he 
shouted  after  them  to  come  back  and  fetch  the  sausages. 
So  intimidated,  says  Luther,  had  he  become  by  the  terrors 
of  school  discipline.  His  object,  however,  in  relating  this 
incident  was  to  show  his  hearers  how  the  heart  of  man  too 
often  construes  manifestations  of  God's  goodness  and  mercy 
into  messages  of  fear,  and  how  men  should  pray  to  God 
perseveringly,  and  without  timidity  or  shamefacedness.  In 
those  days  it  was  not  rare  to  find  even  scholars  of  the 
better  classes,  such  as  the  son  of  a  magistrate  at  Mansfeld, 
and  those  who,  for  the  sake  of  a  better  education,  were  sent 
to  distant  schools,  seeking  to  add  to  their  means  in  the 
manner  we  have  mentioned. 

After  this,  his  father  sent  him  to  Eisenach,  bearing  in 
mind  the  numerous  relatives  wiio  lived  in  the  town  and  sur- 
rounding country,  and  who  might  be  of  service  to  him.  But 
of  these  no  mention  has  reached  us,  except  of  one,  named 
Konrad,  who  was  sacristan  in  the  church  of  St.  Nicholas. 
The  others,  no  doubt,  were  not  in  a  position  to  give  him  any 
material  assistance. 

About  this  time  his  singing  brought  him  under  the 
notice  of  one  Frau  Cotta,  who  with  genuine  affection  took 
up  the  promising  boy,  and  whose  memory,  in  connection 
with  the  great  Eeformer,  still  lives  in  the  hearts  of  the 
German  people.  Her  husband,  Konrad  or  Kunz,  was  one 
of  the  most  influential  citizens  of  the  town,  and  sprang 
from  a  noble  Italian  family  who  had  acquired  wealth  by 
commerce.  Ursula  Cotta,  as  her  name  was,  belonged  to  the 
Eisenach  family  of  Schalbe.     She  died  in  1511.     Mathesius 


i6  LUTHER'S   CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 

tells  US  how  the  boy  won  her  heart  by  his  smging  and 
his  earnestness  in  prayer,  and  she  welcomed  him  to  her 
own  table.  Luther  met  with  similar  acts  of  kindness  from 
a  brother  or  other  relative  of  hers,  and  also  from  an 
institution  belonging  to  Franciscan  friars  at  Eisenach, 
which  was  indebted  to  the  Schalbe  family  for  several  rich 
endowments,  and  was  named,  in  consequence,  the  Schalbe 
College.  At  Frau  Cotta's,  Luther  was  first  introduced  to 
the  life  in  a  patrician's  house,  and  learned  to  move  in  that 
society. 

At  Eisenach  he  remained  at  school  for  four  years. 
Many  years  afterwards  we  find  him  on  terms  of  friendly 
and  grateful  intercourse  with  one  Father  Wiegand,  who 
had  been  his  schoolmaster  there.  Eatzeberger,  speaking 
of  the  then  schoolmaster  at  Eisenach,  mentions  a  '  distin- 
guished poet  and  man  of  learning,  John  Trebonius,'  who, 
as  he  tells  us,  every  morning,  on  entering  the  schoolroom, 
would  take  off  his  biretta,  because  God  might  have  chosen 
many  a  one  of  the  lads  present  to  be  a  future  mayor,  or 
chancellor,  or  learned  doctor  ;  a  thought  which,  as  he  adds, 
was  amply  reaHsed  afterwards  in  the  person  of  Doctor 
Luther.  The  relations  of  these  two  at  the  school,  which 
contained  several  classes,  must  be  a  matter  of  conjecture. 
But  the  system  of  teaching  pursued  there  was  praised 
afterwards  by  Luther  himself  to  Melancthon.  The 
former  acquired  there  that  thorough  knowledge  of  Latin 
which  was  then  the  chief  preparation  for  University 
study.  He  learned  to  write  it,  not  only  in  prose,  but 
also  in  verse,  which  leads  us  to  suppose  that  the  school  at 
Eisenach  took  a  part  in  the  Humanistic  movement  already 
mentioned.  Happily,  his  active  mind  and  quick  under- 
standing had  ah-eady  begun  to  develop ;  not  only  did  he 
make  up  for  lost  ground,  but  he  even  outstripped  those  of 
his  own  age. 

As   we   see    him   growing  up  to  manhood,  the  future 
hero  of  the  faith,  the  teacher,  and  the  warrior,  the  most 


CHILDHOOD  AND  SCHOOLDAYS.  17 

important  question  for  us  is  the  course  which  his  reHgious 
development  took  from  childhood. 

He  who,  in  after  years,  waged  such  a  tremendous  war- 
fare with  the  Church  of  his  time,  always  gratefully  acknow- 
ledged, and  in  his  own  teaching  and  conduct  kept  steadily 
in  view,  how,  within  herself,  and  underneath  all  the  corrup- 
tions he  denounced,  she  still  preserved  the  groundwork  of 
a  Christian  life,  the  charter  of  salvation,  the  fundamental 
truths  of  Christianity,  and  the  means  of  redemption  and 
blessing,  vouchsafed  by  the  grace  of  God.  Especially  did 
he  acknowledge  all  that  he  had  himself  received  from  the 
Church  since  childhood.  In  that  House,  he  says  on  one 
occasion,  he  was  baptised,  and  catechised  in  the  Christian 
truth,  and  for  that  reason  he  would  always  honour  it  as  the 
House  of  his  Father.  The  Church  would  at  any  rate  take 
care  that  children,  at  home  and  at  school,  should  learn  by 
heart  the  Apostles'  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  Ten 
Commandments ;  that  they  should  pray,  and  sing  psalms 
and  Christian  hymns.  Printed  books,  containing  them, 
were  already  in  existence.  Among  the  old  Christian  hymns 
in  the  German  language,  of  which  a  surprisingly  rich  col- 
lection has  been  formed,  a  certain  number,  at  least,  were  in 
common  use  in  the  churches,  especially  for  festivals.  '  Fine 
songs '  Luther  called  them,  and  he  took  care  that  they 
should  live  on  in  the  Evangelical  communities.  Those  old 
verses  form  in  part  the  foundation  of  the  hymns  which  we 
owe  to  his  own  poetical  genius.  Thus  for  Christmas  we 
still  have  the  carol  of  those  times,  -Em  Kindelcin  so  löhelich ; 
and  the  first  verse  of  Luther's  Whitsun  hymn.  Nun  hittcn 
wir  deri  Heiligen  Geist,  is  taken,  he  tells  us,  from  one  of 
those  old-fashioned  melodies.  Of  the  portions  of  Scripture 
read  in  church,  the  Gospels  and  Epistles  were  given  in  the 
mother-tongue.  Sermons,  also,  had  long  been  preached  in 
German,  and  there  were  printed  collections  of  them  for  the 
use  of  the  clergy. 

The  places  where  Luther  grew  up  were  certainly  better 

c 


i8  LUTHER'S  CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 

off  in  this  resj)ect  than  many  others.  For,  in  the  main, 
very  much  was  still  wanting  to  realise  what  had  been  re- 
commended and  striven  for  by  pious  Churchmen,  and  writers 
and  religious  fraternities,  or  even  enjoined  by  the  Church 
herself.  The  Eeformers  had,  indeed,  a  heavy  and  an  irre- 
futable indictment  to  bring  against  the  Catholic  Church 
system  of  their  time.  The  grossest  ignorance  and  short- 
comings were  exposed  by  the  Visitations  which  they  under- 
took, and  from  these  we  may  fairly  judge  of  the  actual  state 
of  things  existing  for  many  years  before.  It  appeared,  that 
even  where  these  portions  of  the  catechism  were  taught  by 
parents  and  schoolmasters,  they  never  formed  the  subject  of 
clerical  instruction  to  the  young.  It  was  precisely  one  of 
the  charges  brought  against  the  enemies  of  the  Eeformation, 
that,  notwithstanding  the  injunctions  of  their  Church,  they 
habitually  neglected  this  instruction,  and  preferred  teaching 
the  children  such  things  as  carrying  banners  in  processions 
and  holy  tapers.  Priests  were  found,  in  the  course  of  these 
visitations,  who  had  scarcely  any  knowledge  of  the  chief 
articles  of  the  faith.  His  own  personal  experience  of  this 
neglect,  when  young,  is  not  noticed  by  Luther  in  his  later 
complaints  on  the  subject. 

But  the  main  fault  and  failing  which  he  recognised  in 
after  life,  and  which,  as  he  tells  us,  was  a  source  of  inward 
suffering  to  him  from  childhood,  was  the  distorted  view, 
held  up  to  him  at  school  and  from  the  pulpit,  of  the  con- 
ditions of  Christian  salvation,  and,  consequently,  of  his 
own  proper  religious  attitude  and  demeanour. 
^^  Luther  himself,  as  we  learn  from  him  in  later  life,  would 
have  Christian  children  brought  up  in  the  happy  assurance 
that  God  is  a  loving  Father,  Christ  a  faithful  Saviour,  and 
that  it  is  their  privilege  and  duty  to  approach  their  Father 
with  frank  and  childlike  confidence,  and,  if  aroused  to  a 
consciousness  of  sin  or  wrong,  to  entreat  at  once  His  for- 
giveness. Such  however,  he  tells  us,  was  not  what  he  was 
taught.     On  the  contrary,  he  was  instructed,  and  trained  up 


CHILDHOOD  AND  SCHOOLDAYS.  19 

from  childhood  in  that  narrowing  conception  of  Christianity, 
and  that  outward  form  of  reHgiousness,  against  which,  more 
than  anything,  he  bore  witness  as  a  Keformer. 

God  w^as  pictm-ed  to  him  as  a  Being  unapprQachably 
subhme,  and  of  awful  holiness ;  Christ,  the  Saviour, 
Mediator,  and  Advocate,  whose  revelation  can  only  bring 
judgment  to  those  who  reject  salvation,  as  the  threatening 
Judge,  against  whose  wrath,  as  against  that  of  God,  man 
sought  for  intercession  and  mediation  from  the  Virgin  and 
the  other  saints.  This  latter  worship,  towards  the  close  of 
the  middle  ages,  had  increased  in  importance  and  extent. 
Peculiar  honour  was  paid  to  particular  saints,  in  particular 
places,  and  for  the  furtherance  of  particular  interests.  The 
warlike  St.  George  was  the  special  saint  of  the  town  and 
county  of  Mansfeld :  his  effigy  still  surmounts  the  entrance 
to  the  old  school-house.  Among  the  miners  the  worship  of 
St.  Anne,  the  mother  of  the  Virgin,  soon  became  popular 
towards  the  end  of  the  century,  and  the  mining  town  of 
Annaberg,  built  in  1496,  was  named  after  her.  Luther 
records  how  the  *  great  stir'  w^as  first  made  about  her, 
when  he  was  a  boy  of  fifteen,  and  how  he  was  then  anxious 
to  place  himself  under  her  protection.  There  is  no  lack  of 
religious  writings  of  that  time,  which,  with  the  view  of 
preserving  the  Catholic  faith,  warn  men  earnestly  against 
the  danger  of  overvaluing  the  saints,  and  of  placing  their 
hopes  more  in  them  than  in  God ;  but  we  see  from  those 
very  warnings  how  necessary  they  were,  and  later  history 
shows  us  how  little  fruit  they  bore.  As  for  Luther,  certain 
beautiful  features  in  the  lives  and  legends  of  the  saints 
exercised  over  him  a  power  of  attraction  which  he  never 
afterwards  renounced ;  and  of  the  Virgin  he  always  spoke 
with  tender  reverence,  only  regretting  that  men  wished  to 
make  an  idol  of  her.  But  of  his  early  religious  belief,  he 
says  that  Christ  appeared  to  him  as  seated  on  a  rainbow, 
like  a  stern  Judge  ;  from  Christ  men  turned  to  the  saints, 
to  be  their  patrons,  and  called  on  the  Virgin  to  bare  her 

c2 


20  LUTHER'S   CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 

breasts  to  her  Son,  and  dispose  him  thereby  to  mercy.  An 
example  of  what  deceptions  were  sometimes  practised  in 
such  worship  came  to  the  notice  of  the  Elector  John 
Frederick,  the  friend  of  Luther,  and  probably  originated  in 
a  convent  at  Eisenach.  It  was  a  figure,  carved  in  wood,  of 
the  Virgin  with  the  infant  Saviour  in  her  arms,  w^hich  was 
furnished  with  a  secret  contrivj^nce  by  means  of  which  the 
Child,  when  the  people  prayed  to  him,  first  turned  away 
to  His  mother,  and  only  when  they  had  invoked  her  as 
intercessor,  bowed  towards  them  with  His  little  arms 
outstretched. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  sinner  who  was  troubled  with 
cares  about  his  soul  and  thoughts  of  Divine  judgment,  found 
himself  directed  to  the  performance  of  particular  acts  of 
penance  and  pious  exercises,  as  the  means  to  appease  a 
righteous  God.  He  received  judgment  and  commands 
through  the  Church  at  the  confessional.  The  Reformers 
themselves,  and  Luther  especially,  fully  recognised  the 
value  of  being  able  to  pour  out  the  inner  temptations  of 
the  heart  to  some  Christian  father-confessor,  or  even  to 
some  other  brother  in  the  faith,  and  to  obtain  from  his  lips 
that  comfort  of  forgiveness  which  God,  in  His  love  and 
mercy,  bestows  freely  on  the  faithful.  But  nothing  of 
this  kind,  they  said,  was  to  be  found  in  the  confessional. 
The  conscience  was  tormented  with  the  enumeration  of  single 
sins,  and  burdened  with  all  sorts  of  penitential  formalities ; 
and  it  was  just  with  a  view  that  everyone  should  be  drawn 
to  this  discipline  of  the  Church,  should  use  it  regularly,  and 
should  seek  for  no  other  way  to  make  his  peace  with  God, 
that  the  educational  activity  of  the  Church,  both  with  young 
and  old,  was  especially  directed. 

Luther,  in  after  life,  as  we  have  already  remarked, 
always  recognised  and  found  comfort  in  the  fact  that,  even 
under  such  conditions  as  the  above,  enough  of  the  simple 
message  of  salvation  in  the  Bible  could  penetrate  the 
heart,  and  awaken  a  faith  which,  in  spite  of  all  artificial 


CHILDHOOD  AND  SCHOOLDAYS.  21 

restraints  and  perplexing  dogmas,  should  throw  itself,  with 
inward  longing  and  childlike  trust,  into  the  arms  of  God's 
mercy,  and  so  enjoy  true  forgiveness.  He  received,  as  we 
shall  see,  some  salutary  directions  for  so  doing  from  later 
friends  of  his,  who  belonged  to  the  Eomish  Church,  nor  was 
that  character  of  ecclesiastical  religiousness,  so  to  speak, 
stamped  everywhere,  or  to  the  same  degree,  on  Christian 
life  in  Germany  during  his  youth.  Nevertheless,  his  whole 
inner  being,  from  boyhood,  was  dominated  by  its  influence ; 
he,  at  all  events,  had  never  been  taught  to  appreciate  the 
Gospel  as  a  child.  Looking  back  in  later  years  on  his 
monastic  days,  and  the  whole  of  his  previous  life,  he 
declared  that  he  never  could  feel  assured  that  his  baptism 
in  Christ  was  sufficient  for  his  salvation,  and  that  he  was 
sorely  troubled  with  doubt  whether  any  piety  of  his  own  would 
be  able  to  secure  for  him  God's  mercy.  Thoughts  of  this 
kind  he  said  induced  him  to  become  a  monk. 

Men  have  never  been  wanting,  either  before  or  since 
the  time  of  Luther's  youth,  to  denounce  the  abuses  and 
corrui)tions  of  the  Church,  and  particularly  of  the  clergy. 
Language  of  this  sort  had  long  found  its  way  to  the 
popular  ear,  and  had  proceeded  also  from  the  people  them- 
selves. Complaints  were  made  of  the  tyranny  of  the  Papal 
hierarchy,  and  of  their  encroachments  on  social  and  civil  life, 
as  well  as  of  the  worldliness  and  gross  immorality  of  the 
priests  and  monks.  The  Papacy  had  reached  its  lowest 
depth  of  moral  degradation  under  Pope  Alexander  VI.  We 
hear  nothing,  however,  of  the  impressions  produced  on 
Luther,  in  this  respect,  in  the  circumstances  of  his  early 
life.  The  news  of  such  scandals  as  were  then  enacted  at 
Eome,  shamelessly  and  in  open  day,  very  likely  took  a  long 
while  to  reach  Luther  and  those  about  him.  With  regard 
to  the  carnal  offences  of  the  clergy,  against  which,  to  the 
honour  of  Germany  be  it  said,  the  German  conscience 
especially  revolted,  he  made  afterwards  the  noteworthy  re- 
mark, that  although  during  his  boyhood  the  priests  allowed 


22  LUTHER'S  CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 

themselves  mistresses,  they  never  incurred  the  suspicion 
of  anything  Hke  unbridled  sensuality  or  adulterous  conduct. 
Examples  of  such  kind  date  only  from  a  later  period. 

The  loyalty  with  which  Mansfeld,  his  home,  adhered  to 
the  ancient  Church,  is  shown  by  several  foundations  of  that 
time,  all  of  which  have  reference  to  altars  and  the  celebra- 
tion of  mass.  The  overseer  of  the  mines,  Eeinicke,  the 
friend  of  Luther's  family,  is  among  the  founders  :  he  left 
provision  for  keeping  up  services  in  honour  of  the  Virgin  and 
St.  George. 

A  peculiarly  reverential  demeanour,  in  regard  to  religion 
and  the  Church,  is  observable  in  Luther's  father,  and  one 
which  was  common  no  doubt  among  his  honest,  simple,  pious 
fellow  townsfolk.  His  conduct  was  consistently  God-fear- 
ing. In  his  house  it  was  afterwards  told  how  he  would  often 
pray  at  the  bedside  of  his  little  Martin,— how,  as  the  friend 
of  godliness  and  learning,  he  had  enjoyed  the  friendship  of 
priests  and  school-teachers.  Words  of  pious  reflection  from 
his  lips  remained  stamped  on  Luther's  memory  from  his  boy- 
hood. Thus  Luther  tells  us,  in  a  sermon  preached  towards 
the  close  of  his  life,  how  he  had  often  heard  his  dear  father 
say,  that,  as  his  own  parents  had  told  him,  the  earth  con- 
tains many  more  who  require  to  be  fed  than  there  are 
sheaves,  even  if  collected  from  all  the  fields  in  the  world ; 
and  yet  how  wondrously  does  God  know  how  to  preserve  man- 
kind !  Li  common  with  his  fellow-townsmen,  he  followed  the 
precepts  and  commands  of  his  Church.  When,  in  the  year 
in  which  he  sent  his  son  to  Magdeburg,  two  new  altars  in 
the  church  at  Mansfeld  were  consecrated  to  a  number  of 
saints,  and  sixty  days'  indulgence  was  granted  to  anyone 
who  heard  mass  at  them,  Hans  Luther,  with  Eeinicke  and 
other  fellow-magistrates,  was  among  the  first  to  make  use 
of  the  invitation.  The  enemies  of  the  Eeformer,  while 
fain  to  trace  his  origin  to  a  heretic  Bohemian,  had  not  a 
shadow  of  a  reason  for  suspecting  his  real  father  of  any 
leanings  to  heresy.    Nor  do  we  hear  a  word  in  later  years 


CHILDHOOD  AND  SCHOOLDAYS,  73 

from  the  Eeformer,  after  his  father  had  separated  with  him 
from  the  CathoHc  Church,  to  show  a  trace  of  any  hostile  or 
critical  remark  against  that  Church,  rememhered  from  the 
lips  of  his  father  during  childhood.  Quietly  but  firmly  the 
latter  asserted  his  own  judgment,  and  framed  his  will  ac- 
cordingly. He  was  firm,  in  particular,  in  the  consciousness 
of  his  paternal  rights  and  duties,  even  against  the  pre- 
tensions of  the  clergy.  Thus,  as  his  son  Martin  tells 
us,  when  he  lay  once  on  the  point  of  death,  and  the 
priest  admonished  him  to  leave  something  to  the  clergy,  he 
replied  in  the  simplicity  of  his  heart,  '  I  have  many  children  : 
I  will  leave  it  them,  for  they  want  it  more.'  We  shall  see 
how  unyieldingly,  when  his  son  entered  a  convent,  he  in- 
sisted, as  against  all  the  value  and  usefulness  of  monasticism, 
on  the  paramount  obligation  of  God's  command,  that 
children  should  obey  their  parents.  Luther  also  tells  us 
how  his  father  once  praised  in  high  terms  the  will  left  by  a 
Count  of  Mansfeld,  who  without  leaving  any  property  to 
the  Church,  was  content  to  depart  from  this  world  trusting 
solely  to  the  bitter  sufferings,  and  death  of  Christ,  and  com- 
mending his  soul  to  Him.  Luther  himself,  when  a  young 
student,  would  have  considered,  as  he  tells  us,  a  bequest  to 
churches  or  convents  a  proper  will  to  make.  His  father 
afterwards  accepted  his  son's  doctrine  of  salvation  without 
hesitation,  and  with  the  full  conviction  that  it  was  right. 
But  remarks  of  his  such  as  we  have  quoted,  were  consistent 
with  a  perfectly  blameless  demeanour  in  regard  to  the  forms 
of  conduct  and  belief  as  prescribed  by  the  Church,  with 
an  avoidance  of  criticism  and  argument  on  ecclesiastical 
matters,  which  he  knew  were  not  his  vocation,  and  above 
all  with  a  complete  abstention  from  such  talk  in  the 
presence  of  his  children.  As  to  what  concerns  further  the 
positive  religious  influence  which  he  exercised  over  his 
children,  any  such  impressions  as  he  might  have  given  by 
what  he  said  of  the  Count  of  Mansfeld,  were  fully  counter- 


24  LUTHER'S  CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 

balanced  by  the  severity  and  firmness  of  his  paternal 
discipline. 

Concurrent  with  the  doctrine  of  salvation  through  the 
intercession  of  the  saints  and  the  Church,  and  one's  own 
good  works,  which  Luther  had  been  taught  from  his  youth, 
were  the  dark  popular  ideas  of  the  power  of  the  devil — ideas, 
which,  though  not  actually  invented,  were  at  least  patronised 
by  the  Church,  and  which  not  only  threaten  the  souls  of 
men,  but  cast  a  baneful  spell  over  all  their  natural  life. 
Luther,  as  is  well  known,  has  frequently  expressed  his  own 
opinions  about  the  devil,  in  connection  with  the  enchant- 
ments supposed  to  be  practised  by  the  Evil  One  on  mankind, 
and,  more  especially,  on  the  subject  of  witchcraft.  Of  one 
thing  he  was  certain,  that  in  God's  hand  we  are  safe  from 
the  Evil  One,  and  can  triumph  over  him.  But  even  he 
believed  the  devil's  work  was  manifested  in  sudden  accidents 
and  striking  phenomena  of  Nature,  in  storms,  conflagra- 
tions, and  the  like.  As  to  the  tales  of  sorcery  and  magic, 
which  were  told  and  believed  in  by  the  people,  some  he 
declared  to  be  incredible,  others  he  ascribed  to  the  hallucina- 
tions effected  by  the  devil.  But  that  witches  had  power  to 
do  one  bodily  harm,  that  they  plagued  children  in  particular, 
and  that  their  spells  could  affect  the  soul,  he  never  seriously 
doubted. 

From  his  earliest  childhood,  and  especially  at  home, 
ideas  of  that  kind  had  been  instilled  into  Luther,  and 
accordingly  they  ministered  strong  food  to  his  imagination. 
They  had  just  then  spread  to  a  remarkable  extent  among 
the  Germans,  and  had  developed  in  remarkable  ways. 
They  had  affected  the  administration  of  ecclesiastical  and 
civil  law,  they  had  given  rise  to  the  Inquisition  and  the 
most  barbarous  cruelties  in  the  punishment  of  those  who 
were  pretended  to  be  in  league  with  the  devil,  and  they  had 
gradually  multiplied  their  baneful  effects.  The  year  after 
Luther's  birth,  appeared  the  remarkable  Papal  bull  which 


CHILDHOOD  AND   SCHOOLDAYS.  25 

sanctioned  the  trial  of  witches.  When  a  boy,  Luther  heard 
a  great  deal  about  witches,  though  later  in  Hfe  he  thought 
there  was  no  longer  so  much  talk  about  them,  and  he  would 
not  scruple  to  tell  stories  of  how  they  harmed  men  and 
cattle,  and  brought  down  storms  and  hail.  Nay,  of  his  own 
mother  he  believed  that  she  had  suffered  much  from  the 
witcheries  of  a  female  neighbour ,...who,  as  he  said,  '  plagued 
her  children  till  they  nearly  screamed  themselves  to  death.' 
Delusions  such  as  these  are  certainly  dark  shadows  in  the 
picture  of  Luther's  youth,  and  are  important  towards  under- 
standing his  inner  life  as  a  man. 

But  while  admitting  the  existence  of  these  superstitious 
and  pseudo-religious  notions,  we  must  not  imagine  that  they 
composed  the  whole  portraiture  of  Luther's  early  life.  He 
was,  as  Mathesius  describes  him,  a  merry,  jovial  young  fellow. 
In  his  later  reflections  on  himself  and  his  youthful  days, 
the  very  war  he  was  waging  against  the  false  teachmgs  of 
the  Church,  from  which  he  himself  had  suffered,  made  him 
dwell,  as  was  natural,  on  this  side  of  his  early  hfe.  But 
amidst  all  those  trials  and  depressing  influences,  the  fresh 
and  elastic  vigom*  of  his  natm^e  stood  the  strain — a  vigour 
innate  and  inherited,  and  which  afterwards  shone  forth  in 
a  new  and  brighter  light,  under  a  new  aspect  of  religious 
life.  His  childlike  joy  in  Nature  around  him,  which  after- 
wards distinguished  so  remarkably  the  theologian  and 
champion  of  the  faith,  must  be  referred  back  to  his  original 
bent  of  mind  and  his  life,  when  a  boy,  amid  Nature's 
surroundings. 

How  much  he  lived,  from  childhood,  with  the  peasantry, 
is  shown  by  the  natural  ease  with  which  he  spoke  in  the 
popular  dialect,  even  when  he  was  learning  Latm  and 
enjoying  a  higher  culture,  and  by  the  frequency  with  which 
the  native  roughnesses  of  that  dialect  broke  out  in  his 
learned  discourses  or  sermons.  In  no  other  theologian,  nay, 
in  no  other  known  German  writer  of  his  century,  do  we 


26  LUTHER'S   CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 

meet  with  so  many  popular  proverbs  as  in  Lntber,  to  whom 
they  came  naturally  in  his  conversations  and  letters. 
German  legends  also,  and  popular  tales,  such  as  the  history 
of  Dietrich  von  Bern  and  other  heroes,  or  of  Eulenspiegel 
or  Markolf,  would  hardly  have  been  remembered  so  accu- 
rately by  him  in  later  years,  if  he  had  not  familiarised 
himself  with  them  in  childhood.  He  would  at  times  inveigh 
against  the  worthless,  and  even  shameless  tales  and 
*  gossip,'  as  he  called  it,  which  such  books  contained,  and 
especially  against  the  priests  who  used  to  spice  then-  sermons 
with  such  stories ;  but  that  he  also  recognised  their  value 
we  know  from  his  allusion  to  *  some  people,  who  had 
written  songs  about  Dietrich  and  other  giants,  and  in  so 
doing  had  expounded  much  greater  subjects  in  a  short  and 
simple  manner.'  The  pleasure  with  which  he  hunself  may 
have  read  or  hstened  to  them,  can  be  gathered  from  his 
remark  that  '  when  a  story  of  Dietrich  von  Bern  is  told,  one 
is  bound  to  remember  it  afterwards,  even  though  one  has 
only  heard  it  once.' 

He  maintained  through  life  a  faithful  devotion  to  the 
places  where  he  had  grown  up.  Eisenach  remained,  as  we 
have  ah-eady  seen,  his  beloved  town.  Mansfeld  was  par- 
ticularly dear  to  him  as  his  home,  and  the  whole  county 
as  his  '  fatherland ;  '  he  calls  it  with  pride  a  '  noble  and 
famous  county.'  The  miners  also,  who  were  his  fellow- 
countrymen  and  his  dear  father's  work-mates,  he  loved  all 
his  hfe  long.  But  a  wider  horizon  was  not  opened  to  him 
among  the  people  of  the  little  town  of  Mansfeld,  or  where 
he  afterwards  went  to  school.  To  this  fact,  and  to  his  quiet 
life  as  a  monk,  we  must  ascribe  the  peculiar  featm'e  of  his 
later  activity,  namely,  that  while  prosecuting  with  far-seeing 
eye  and  a  warm  heart  the  highest  and  most  extensive  tasks 
for  his  Church  and  for  the  German  people  m  general, 
still,  at  the  beginning  of  his  work  and  campaign,  he  under- 
stood but  little  of  the  great  world  outside,  and  of  politics, 


CHILDHOOD  AND  SCHOOLDA  VS. 


27 


or  even  of  the  general  state  of  Germany ;  nay,  he  shows  at 
times  a  touchingly  childlike  simplicity  in  these  matters. 

The  last  few  years  of  his  school-life  enabled  him  to  make 
brave  progress  on  the  road  to  intellectual  culture,  which 
liis  father  wished  him  to  pursue.  Thus  equipped,  he  was 
prepared  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  to  remove,  in  the  summer 
of  1501  to  the  university  at  Erfurt. 


X^^        OF   THE  ' ^ 

UNIVEESIT'i 


28  LUTHER'S  CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 


CHAPTEE   III. 

STUDENT-DAYS   AT    ERFURT   AND   ENTRY   INTO    THE    COm^^NT. 
1501-1505. 

Among  the  German  universities,  that  of  Erfurt,  ^Yhich 
could  count  ah'eady  a  hundred  years  of  prosperous  exist- 
ence, occupied  at  this  time  a  brilhant  position.  So  high, 
Luther  tells  us,  was  its  standing  and  reputation,  that  all  its 
sister  institutions  were  regarded  as  mere  pigmies  by  its 
side.  His  parents  could  now  afford  to  give  him  the  neces- 
sary means  for  studying  at  such  a  place.  '  My  dear  father,' 
he  says,  '  maintained  me  there  with  loyal  affection,  and  by 
his  labour  and  the  sweat  of  his  brow  enabled  me  to  go  there.' 
He  had  now  begun  to  feel  a  burning  thirst  for  learning,  and 
here,  at  the  *  fountain  of  all  knowledge,'  to  use  Melanc- 
thon's  words,  he  hoped  to  be  able  to  quench  it. 

He  began  with  a  complete  course  of  philosophy,  as  that 
science  was  then  understood.  It  dealt,  in  the  first  place, 
with  the  laws  and  forms  of  thought  and  knowledge,  with 
language,  in  which  Latin  formed  the  basis,  or  with  grammar 
and  rhetoric,  as  also  with  the  highest  problems  and  most 
a-bstruse  questions  of  physics,  and  comprised  even  a  general 
knowledge  of  natural  science  and  astronomy.  A  complete 
study  of  all  these  subjects  was  not  merely  requisite  for 
learned  theologians,  but  frequently  served  as  an  introduc- 
tion to  that  of  law,  and  even  of  medicine. 

When  Luther  first  came  from  Eisenach  to  Erfurt,  there 
was  nothing  yet  about  him  that  attracted  the  attention  of 
others  so  far  as  to  call  forth  any  contemporary  account  of 
him.     Enough,  however,  is  known  of  the    most    eminent 


STUDENT-DAYS  AT  ERFURT.  29 

teachers  there,  at  whose  feet  h^  sate,  and  also  of  the  general 
kind  of  intellectual  food  which  they  administered.  He  gained 
entrance  into  a  circle  of  older  and  younger  men  than  him- 
self, teachers  and  fellow- students,  who  in  later  years,  either 
as  friends  or  opponents,  were  able  to  bear  witness,  favour- 
ably or  the  reverse,  as  to  his  life  and  work  at  Erfurt. 

The  leading  professor  of  philosophy  at  Erfurt  was  then 
Jodocus  Trutvetter,  who,  three  years  after  Luther's  arrival, 
became  also  doctor  of  theology  and  lecturer  of  the  theolo- 
gical faculty.  Next  to  him,  in  this  department,  ranked 
Bartholomew  Arnold!  of  Usingen.  It  was  to  these  two 
men  above  others,  and  particularly  to  the  former,  that 
Luther  looked  for  his  instruction. 

The  philosophy  which  was  then  in  vogue  at  Erfurt, 
and  which  found  its  most  vigorous  champion  in  Trutvetter, 
was  that  of  the  Scholasticism  of  later  days.  It  is  common 
to  associate  with  the  idea  of  Scholasticism,  or  the  theolo- 
gical and  philosophical  School- science  of  the  middle  ages, 
a  system  of  thought  and  instruction,  embracing,  indeed, 
the  highest  questions  of  knowledge  and  existence,  but  at 
the  same  time  not  venturing  to  strike  into  any  independent 
paths,  or  to  deviate  an  inch  from  tradition,  but  submitting 
rather,  in  everything  connected,  or  supposed  to  be  con- 
nected, with  religious  belief,  to  the  dogmas  and  decrees  of 
the  Church  and  the  authority  of  the  early  Fathers,  and 
wasting  the  understanding  and  intellect  in  dry  formalism  or 
subtle  but  barren  controversies.  This  conception  fails  to 
appreciate  the  vast  labour  of  thought  bestowed  by  leading 
minds  on  the  attempt  to  unravel  the  mass  of  ecclesiastical 
teaching  which  had  twined  round  the  innermost  lives  of 
themselves  and  their  fellow- Christians,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  follow  those  general  questions  under  the  guidance  of  the 
old  philosophers,  especially  Aristotle,  of  whom  they  knew 
but  little.  But  it  is  applicable,  at  any  rate,  to  the  Scholas- 
ticism of  later  days.  The  confidence  with  which  its  older 
exponents  had  thought  to  explain  and  establish  orthodoxy 


30  LUTHER'S  CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 

by  means  of  their  favourite  science,  was  gone ;  all  the 
more,  therefore,  should  that  science  keep  silence  in  face  of 
the  commands  of  the  Church.  Men,  moreover,  had  grown 
tired  of  the  old  questions  of  philosophy  about  the  reality 
and  real  existence  of  Universals.  It  had  been  formerly  a 
question  of  dispute  whether  our  general  ideas  had  a  real 
existence,  or  whether  they  were  nothing  more  than  words 
or  names,  mere  abstractions,  comprehending  the  individual, 
which  alone  was  supposed  to  possess  Eeality.  At  that  time 
the  latter  doctrine,  that  of  Nominalism,  as  it  was  called, 
prevailed.  At  length,  these  new  or  *  modern  '  philosophers 
abandoned  the  question  of  Eealism,  and  the  relation  of 
thought  to  Eeality,  in  favour  of  a  system  of  pure  logic  or 
dialectics,  dealing  with  the  mere  forms  and  expressions 
of  thought,  the  formal  analysis  of  ideas  and  words,  the 
mutual  relation  of  propositions  and  conclusions--in  short, 
all  that  constitutes  what  we  call  formal  logic,  in  its  widest 
acceptation.  At  this  point,  the  far-famed  scholastic 
intellect,  with  its  subtleties,  its  fine  distinctions,  its  nice 
questions,  its  sophistical  conclusions,  reached  its  zenith. 

To  this  logic  Trutvetter  also  devoted  himself,  and  in  it 
he  taught  his  pupils.  He  had  just  then  published  a  series 
of  treatises  on  the  subject.  To  him  this  study  was  real 
earnest.  Compared  with  others,  he  has  shown  in  these 
excursions  a  cautious  and  discreet  moderation,  and  no 
inclination  for  the  quarrels  and  verbal  combats  often  dear 
to  logicians.  The  same  can  be  said  of  his  colleague 
Usingen.  Trutvetter  has  shown  also  that  he  enjoyed  and 
was  widely  read  in  earlier  and  modern,  especially,  of  course, 
in  Scholastic  literature,  including  the  works  not  only  of  the 
most  important,  but  also  of  very  obscure  authors.  We  can 
imagine  what  delight  he  took  in  all  this  when  in  his 
professor's  chah-,  and  how  much  he  expected  from  his 
pupils. 

At  Erfurt  meanwhile,  and  by  this  same  philosophical 
faculty,  a  fresh  and  vigorous  impulse  was  being  given  to 


STUDENT-DAYS  AT  ERFURT  31 

that  study  of  classical  antiquity,  which  gave  birth  to  a  new 
learning,  and  ushered  in  a  new  era  of  intellectual  culture 
in  Germany.  We  have  already  had  occasion  to  refer  to  the 
movement  and  influence  of  Humanism  at  the  schools  which 
Luther  attended  at  Magdeburg  and  Eisenach.  He  now 
found  himself  at  one  of  the  chief  nurseries  of  these  *  arts 
and  letters '  in  Germany,  nay,  at  the  very  place  where  their 
richest  blossoms  were  unfolded.  Erfurt  could  boast  of 
having  issued  the  first  Greek  book  printed  in  Germany  in 
Greek  type,  namely,  a  grammar,  printed  in  Luther's  first 
year  at  the  University.  It  was  the  Greek  and  Latin  poets, 
in  particular,  whose  writings  stirred  the  enthusiasm  and 
emulation  of  the  students.  For  ,  refined  expression  and 
learned  intercourse,  the  fluent  and  elegant  Latin  language 
was  studied,  as  given  in  the  works  of  classical  writers. 
But  far  more  important  still  was  the  free  movement  of 
thought,  and  the  new  world  of  ideas  thus  opened  up. 

In  proportion  as  these  young  disciples  of  antiquity 
learned  to  despise  the  barbarous  Latin  and  insipidity  of  the 
monkish  and  scholastic  education  of  the  day,  they  began  to 
revolt  against  Scholasticism,  against  the  dogmas  of  faith 
propounded  by  the  Church,  and  even  against  the  rehgious 
opinions  of  Christendom  in  general.  History  shows  us  the 
different  paths  taken,  in  this  respect,  by  the  Humanists ; 
and  we  shall  come  across  them,  in  another  way,  during  the 
career  of  the  Reformer,  as  having  an  important  influence 
on  the  com-se  of  the  Reformation.  With  many,  an  honest 
striving  after  religion  and  morality  allied  itself  with  the 
impulse  for  independent  intellectual  culture,  and  tried  to 
utilise  it  for  improving  the  condition  of  the  Church.  When 
the  struggle  of  the  Reformation  began,  some  followed 
Luther  and  the  other  religious  teachers  on  his  side,  some, 
shrinking  back  from  his  trenchant  conclusions,  and,  above 
all,  concerned  for  their  own  stock-in-trade  of  learning, 
counselled  others  to  practise  prudence  and  moderation,  and 
themselves  retired  to  the  service  of  their  muses.'    Others 


32  LUTHER'S   CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 

again,  broke  away  altogether  from  the  Christian  faith  and 
the  principles  of  Christian  morality.  They  took  delight  in 
a  new  life  of  Heathenism,  devoted  sometimes  to  sensual 
pleasm-es  and  gross  immoralities,  sometimes  to  the  indul- 
gence of  refined  tastes  and  the  enjoyment  of  art.  These 
latter  never  raised  a  weapon  against  the  Church,  but  for 
the  most  part  accommodated  themselves  to  her  forms.  In 
her  teachings,  her  ordinances,  and  her  discipline,  they  saw 
something  indispensable  to  the  multitude,  as  whose  conscious 
superiors  they  behaved.  Indeed,  they  themselves  wielded 
this  government  in  the  Church,  and  comfortably  enjoyed 
their  authority  and  its  fruits.  In  Italy,  at  Rome,  and  on 
the  Papal  chair  these  despotic  pretensions  were  then 
asserted  without  shame  or  reserve.  In  Germany,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  leading  champions  of  the  new  learning, 
even  when  in  open  arms  against ,  the  barbarism  of  the 
monks  and  clergy,  sought,  for  themselves  and  then*  dis- 
ciples, to  remain  faithful  on  the  ground  of  their  Mother 
Church.  At  Erfurt,  in  particular,  the  relations  between 
them  and  the  representatives  of  Scholasticism  were  peace- 
ful, unconstrained,  and  friendly.  The  dry  writings  of  a 
Trutvetter  they  prefaced  with  panegyrics  in  Latin  verse, 
and  the  Trutvetter  would  try  to  imitate  their  purer 
style. 

Some  talented  young  students  of  the  classics  at  Erfurt 
formed  themselves  into  a  small  coterie  of  their  own.  They 
enjoyed  the  cheerful  pleasures  of  youthful  society,  nor  were 
poetry  and  wine  wanting,  but  the  rules  of  decorum  and 
good  manners  were  not  overlooked.  Several  men,  whom 
we  shall  come  across  afterwards  in  the  history  of  Luther, 
belonged  to  this  circle ; — for  instance,  John  Jäger,  known 
as  Crotus  Rubianus,  the  friend  of  Ulrich  Hütten,  and 
George  Spalatin  (properly  Burkhard),  the  trusted  fellow- 
labourer  of  the  Reformer.  Both  had  akeady  been  three 
years  at  the  university  when  Luther  entered  it.  Three 
years  after  his  arrival,  came  Eoban  Hess,  the  most  brilliant. 


STUDENT-DAYS  AT  ERFURT.  ^2» 

talented,  and  amiable  of  the  young  Humanists  and  poets  of 
Germany. 

Such  was  the  learned  company  to  which  Luther  was 
introduced  in  the  philosophical  faculty  at  Erfurt.  So  far, 
different  avenues  of  intellectual  culture  were  opened  to  him. 
He  threw  himself  into  the  study  of  that  philosophy  in  all 
its  bearings,  and,  not  content  with  exploring  the  tangled 
and  thorny  paths  of  logic,  took  counsel  how  to  enjoy,  as  far 
as  possible,  the  fruits  of  the  newly-revived  knowledge  of 
antiquity. 

As  regards  the  latter,  he  carried  the  study  of  Ovid, 
Virgil,  and  Cicero,  in  particular,  farther  than  was  customary 
with  the  professed  students  of  Humanism,  and  the  same 
with  the  poetical  works  of  more  modern  Latin  writers. 
But  his  chief  aim  was  not  so  much  to  master  the  mere 
language  of  the  classical  authors,  or  to  mould  himself 
according  to  their  form,  as  to  cull  from  their  pages  rich 
apophthegms  of  human  wisdom,  and  pictures  of  human 
life  and  of  the  history  of  peoples.  He  learned  to  express 
pregnant  and  powerful  thoughts  clearly  and  vigorously  in 
learned  Latin,  but  he  was  himself  well  aware  how  much 
his  language  was  wanting  in  the  elegance,  refinement,  and 
charm  of  the  new  school ;  indeed,  this  elegance  he  never 
attempted  to  attain. 

With  the  members  of  this  circle  of  young  Humanists, 
Luther  was  on  terms  of  personal  friendship.  Crotus  was 
able  to  remind  him  in  after  life  how,  in  close  intimacy,  they 
had  studied  the  fine  arts  together  at  the  university.  But 
there  is  no  mention  of  him  in  the  numerous  letters  and 
poems  left  to  posterity  by  the  aspiring  Humanists  at  Erfurt. 
He  had  made  himself,  Crotus  adds,  a  name  among  his  com- 
panions as  the  '  learned  philosopHer  '  and  the  '  musician,' 
but  he  never  belonged  to  the  *  poets,'  which  was  the 
favourite  title  of  the  young  Humanists.  Many,  including 
even  Melancthon,  have  lamented  that  he  was  not  more 
deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  those  '  noble  arts  and  letters,' 


34  LUTHER'S  CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH, 

which  educate  the  mind,  and  would  have  tended  to  soften 
his  rugged  nature  and  manner.  But  they  would  have  been 
of  little  value  to  him  for  the  quick  decision  and  energy 
required  for  the  war  he  had  afterwards  to  wage.  Those 
intellectual  treasures  and  enjoyments  kept  aloof  not  only 
from  such  contests,  but  also  from  sharp  and  searching 
investigations  of  the  highest  questions  of  religion  and 
morality,  and  from  the  inward  struggle,  so  often  pamful, 
which  they  bring.  As  regards  the  merits  of  Humanism, 
which  Luther  again,  as  a  Reformer,  eagerly  acknowledged, 
we  must  not  forget  how  selfishly  it  withdrew  itself  from 
contact  and  communion  with  German  popular  Hfe,  nor  how 
it  helped  to  create  an  exclusive  aristocracy  of  mtellect,  and 
allowed  the  noblest  talents  to  become  as  clumsy  in  then: 
own  natural  mother-tongue,  as  they  were  clever  in  the 
handling  of  foreign,  acquired  forms  of  art.  Luther,  in  not 
yielding  further  to  those  influences,  remained  a  German. 

Philosophy,  then,  engrossed  him,  and  allowed  him  but 
little  time  for  other  things.  And  in  studying  this,  he 
sought  to  grapple  with  the  highest  problems  of  the  human 
understanding.  These  problems  occupied  also  the  labours 
of  the  later  Scholastics,  however  faulty  were  the  forms  in 
which  they  clothed  their  ideas.  At  the  same  time,  these 
very  forms  attracted  him,  from  the  scope  they  gave  to  the 
exercise  of  his  natural  acuteness  and  understanding.  Dis- 
putation was  his  great  delight ;  and  argumentative  contests 
were  then  in  fashion  at  the  universities.  But  in  after  years, 
as  soon  as  the  contents  of  the  Bible  were  opened  to  his 
inner  understanding,  and  he  recognised  in  its  pages  the 
object  of  real  theological  knowledge,  he  regretted  the  time 
and  labour  which  he  had  wasted  on  those  studies,  and  even 
spoke  of  them  with  dis^st. 

Crotus  has  already  told  us  of  the  sociable  life  that 
Luther  led  with  his  h'iends.  The  love  for  music,  which  he 
had  shown  in  school-days,  he  continued  to  keep  up,  and 
indulged  in  it  merrily  with  his  fellow-students.     He  had  a 


STUDENT-DAYS  AT  ERFURT.  35 

high-pitched  voice,  not  strong,  but  audible  at  a  distance. 
Besides  singing,  he  learned  also  to  play  the  lute,  and  this 
without  a  master,  and  he  employed  his  time  in  this  way 
when  laid  up  once  by  an  accident  to  his  leg. 

Such  rapid  progress  did  he  make  in  his  philosophical 
studies,  that  in  his  third  term  he  was  able  to  attain  his 
baccalam-eate,  the  first  academical  degree  of  the  theological 
faculty.  This  degree,  according  to  the  general  custom  of 
the  universities,  preceded  that  of  Master,  corresponding  to 
the  present  Doctor,  of  philosophy.  The  examination  for  it, 
which  Luther  passed  on  Michaelmas  day  1502,  professed 
to  include  the  most  important  subjects  in  the  province  of 
philosophy.  But  it  could  not  have  been  very  severe.  The 
chief  work  came  when  he  took  his  next  degree  as  Master, 
which  was  at  the  beginning  of  1505.  He  then  experienced 
what  afterwards,  speaking  of  Erfurt's  former  glory,  he  thus 
describes  :  *  What  a  moment  of  majesty  and  splendour  was 
that,  when  one  took  the  degree  of  Master,  and  torches 
were  carried  before,  and  honour  was  paid  one.  I  consider 
that  no  temporal  or  worldly  joy  can  equal  it.'  Melancthon 
tells  us,  on  the  authority  of  several  of  Luther's  fellow- 
students,  that  his  talent  was  then  the  wonder  of  the  whole 
university. 

In  accordance  with  the  wish  of  his  father  and  the  advice 
of  his  relations,  he  was  now  to  fit  himself  for  a  lawyer. 
In  this  profession,  they  thought,  he  v/ould  be  able  to  turn 
his  talents  to  the  best  account,  and  make  a  name  in  the 
world.  And  in  this  department  also,  the  university  of  Erfurt 
could  boast  of  one  of  the  most  distinguished  men  of  learn- 
ing of  that  time,  Henning  Goede,  who  was  now  in  the 
prime  of  his  vigour.  Luther,  accordingly,  began  to  attend 
the  lectures  on  law,  and  his  father  allowed  him  to  buy  some 
valuable  books  for  that  purpose,  particularly  a  *  Corpus 
Juris.' 

Meanwhile,  however,  in  his  inner  religious  life  a  change 

d2 


36  LUTHER'S   CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 

was  being  prepared,  which  proved  the  turning-point  of  his 
career. 

Luther  himself,  as  we  have  seen,  frequently  pointed  oui 
in  after  life  the  influences  which,  even  from  childhood, 
under  the  discipline  of  home,  the  experiences  of  school,  and 
the  teaching  of  the  Church,  combined  to  bring  about  this 
result.  He  could  never  shake  off  for  any  length  of  time, 
even  when  in  the  midst  of  learned  study  or  the  enjoyment 
of  student  life,  the  consciousness  that  he  must  be  pious  and 
satisfy  all  the  strict  commands  of  God,  that  he  must  make 
good  all  the  shortcomings  of  his  life,  and  reconcile  himself 
with  Heaven,  and  that  an  angry  Judge  was  throned  above 
who  threatened  him  with  damnation.  Inner  voices  of  this 
kind,  in  a  man  of  sensitive  and  tender  conscience,  were 
bound  to  assert  themselves  the  more  loudly  and  earnestly, 
as,  in  his  progress  from  youth  to  manhood,  he  realised 
more  fully  his  personal  responsibility  to  God,  and  also  his 
personal  independence.  To  religious  observances,  in  which 
he  had  been  trained  h'om  childhood,  Luther,  as  a  student, 
remained  faithful.  Kegularly  he  began  his  day  with  prayer, 
and  as  regularly  attended  mass.  But  of  any  new  or  com- 
forting means  of  access  to  God  and  salvation,  he  heard 
nothing,  even  here.  In  the  town  of  Erfurt  there  was  an 
earnest  and  powerful  preacher,  named  Sebastian  Weinmann, 
who  denounced  in  incisive  language  the  prevalent  vices  of 
the  day,  and  exposed  the  corruption  of  ecclesiastical  life, 
and  whom  the  students  thronged  to  hear.  But  even  he  had 
nothing  to  offer  to  satisfy  Luther's  inward  cravings  of  the 
soul.  It  was  an  episode  in  his  life  when  he  once  found  a 
Latin  Bible  in  the  library  of  the  university.  Though  then 
nearly  twenty  years  of  age,  he  had  never  yet  seen  a  Bible. 
Now  for  the  first  time  he  saw  how  much  more  it  contained 
than  was  ever  read  out  and  explained  in  the  churches. 
With  delight  he  perused  the  story  of  Samuel  and  his  mother, 
on  the  first  pages  that  met  his  eye ;  though,  as  yet,  he 
could  make  nothing  more  out  of  the  Sacred  Book.     It  was 


STUDENT-DAYS  AT  ERFURT  2,7 

not  on  account  of  any  particular  offences,  such  as  youthful 
excesses,  that  Luther  feared  the  wrath  of  God.  Staunch 
Catholics  at  Erfurt,  including  even  later  avowed  enemies  of 
the  Keformer,  who  knew  him  there  as  a  student,  have  never 
hinted  at  anything  of  that  sort  against  him.  '  The  more 
we  wash  our  hands,  the  fouler  they  become,'  was  a  favourite 
saying  of  Luther's.  He  referred,  no  doubt,  to  the  numerous 
faults  in  thought,  word,  and  deed,  which,  in  spite  of  human 
carefulness,  every  day  brings,  and  which,  however  insignifi- 
cant they  might  seem  to  others,  his  conscience  told  him 
were  sins  -against  God's  holy  law.  Disquieting  questions, 
moreover,  now  arose  in  his  mind,  so  sorely  troubled  with 
temptation ;  and  his  subtle  and  penetrating  intellect,  so  far 
from  being  able  to  solve  them,  only  plunged  him  deeper  in 
distress.  Was  it  then  really  God's  own  will,  he  asked 
himself,  that  he  should  become  actually  purged  from  sin 
and  thereby  be  saved  P  Was  not  the  way  to  hell  or  the 
way  to  heaven  already  fixed  for  him  immutably  in  God's 
will  and  decree,  by  which  everything  is  determined  and 
preordained?  And  did  not  the  very  futility  of  his  own 
endeavours  hitherto  prove  that  it  was  the  former  fate  that 
hung  over  him  ?  He  was  in  danger  of  going  utterly  astray 
in  his  conception  of  such  a  God.  Expressions  in  the 
Bible  such  as  those  which  speak  of  serving  Him  with  fear 
became  to  him  intolerable  and  hateful.  He  was  seized  at 
times  with  fits  of  despair  such  as  might  have  tempted  him 
to  blaspheme  God.  It  was  this  that  he  afterwards  referred 
to  as  the  greatest  temptation  he  had  experienced  when 
young. 

His  physical  condition  probably  contributed  to  this 
gloomy  frame  of  mind.  Already  during  his  baccalaureate 
we  hear  of  an  illness  of  his,  which  awakened  in  him  thoughts 
of  death.  A  friend,  represented  by  later  tradition  as  an  aged 
priest,  said  to  him  on  his.  sick  bed, '  Take  courage;  God  will 
yet  make  you  the  means  of  comfort  to  many  others ;  '  and 
these  words  impressed  him  strongly  even  then.   An  accident 


38  LUTHER'S  CHILDHOOD  AND    YOUTH. 

also,  which  threatened  to  be  fatal,  must  have  tended  to  alarm 
him.  As  he  was  travelling  home  at  Easter,  and  was  within  an 
hom-'s  distance  of  Erfm^t,  he  accidentally  injm-ed  the  main 
artery  of  his  leg  with  the  rapier  which,  like  other  students, 
he  carried  at  his  side.  Whilst  a  h'iend  who  was  with  him 
had  gone  for  a  doctor,  and  he  was  left  alone,  he  pressed 
the  wound  tightly  as  he  lay  on  his  back,  but  the  leg 
continued  to  swell.  In  the  anguish  of  death  he  called  upon 
the  Ykgin  to  help  him.  That  night  his  terror  was  renewed 
when  the  wound  broke  open  afresh,  and  again  he  invoked 
the  Mother  of  God.  It  was  during  his  convalescence  after 
this  accident  that  he  resolved  upon  learning  to  play  the 
lute. 

He  was  terribly  distressed  also,  a  few  months  after  he 
had  taken  his  degree  as  Master,  by  the  sudden  death  of  one 
of  his  friends,  not  further  known  to  us,  who  was  either 
assassinated  or  snatched  away  by  some  other  fatality. 

Well  might  the  thought  even  then  have  occmTed  to 
him,  while  so  disturbed  in  his  mind  and  overpowered  by 
feelings  of  sadness,  whether  it  would  not  be  better  to 
seek  his  cm-e  in  the  monastic  holiness  recommended  by 
the  Church,  and  to  renounce  altogether  the  world  and  all 
the  success  he  had  hitherto  aspked  to.  The  young  Master 
of  Arts,  as  he  tells  us  himself  in  later  years,  was  indeed  a 
sorrowful  man. 

Suddenly  and  .offhand  he  was  hurried  into  a  most 
momentous  decision.  Towards  the  end  of  June  1505, 
when  several  Church  festivals  fall  together,  he  paid  a  visit 
to  his  home  at  Mansfeld,  in  quest,  very  possibly,  of  rest 
and  comfort  to  his  mind.  Eeturning  on  July  2,  the  feast 
of  the  Visitation  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  he  was  already  near 
Erfurt,  when,  at  the  village  of  Stotternheim  a  terrific  storm 
broke  over  his  head.  A  fearful  flash  of  lightning  darted 
from  heaven  before  his  eyes.  Trembling  with  fear,  he  fell 
to  the  earth,  and  exclaimed,  '  Help,  Anna,  beloved  Saint ! 
I  will  be  a  monk.'     A  few  days  after,  when  quietly  settled 


STUDENT-DAYS  AT  ERFURT.  39 

again  at  Erfurt,  he  repented  having  used  these  words.  But 
he  felt  that  he  had  taken  a  vow,  and  that,  on  the  strength 
of  that  vow,  he  had  obtained  a  hearing.  The  time,  he 
knew,  was  past  for  doubt  or  indecision.  Nor  did  he  think 
it  necessary  to  get  his  father's  consent ;  his  own  conviction 
and  the  teaching  of  the  Church  told  him  that  no  objection 
on  the  part  of  his  father  could  release  him  from  his  vow. 
Thus  he  severed  himself  at  once  from  his  former  life 
and  companions.  On  July  16  he  called  his  best  friends 
together  to  bid  them  leave.  Once  more  they  tried  to 
keep  him  back ;  he  answered  them,  '  To-day  you  see  me, 
and  never  again.'  The  next  day,  that  of  St.  Alexius,  they 
accompanied  him  with  tears  to  the  gates  of  the  Augustinian 
convent  in  the  town,  which  he  thought  was  to  receive  him 
for  ever. 

It  is  chiefly  from  what  Luther  himself  has  told  us  that 
we  are  enabled  to  picture  to  ourselves  this  remarkable  occur- 
rence. Kumour,  and  rumour  only,  has  given  the  name  of 
Alexius  to  that  unknown  friend  whose  death  so  terrified 
him,  and  has  represented  this  friend  as  having  been  struck 
dead  by  lightning  at  his  side. 

The  Luther  of  later  days  declared  that  his  monastic 
vow  was  a  compulsory  one,  forced  from  him  by  terror  and 
the  fear  of  death.  But,  at  the  same  time,  he  never 
doubted  that  it  was  God  who  urged  him.  Thus  he  said 
afterwards,  *  I  never  thought  to  leave  again  the  convent. 
I  was  entkely  dead  to  the  world,  until  God  thought  that 
the  time  had  come.' 


PAET  II. 

LUTHER  ÄS  MONK  ÄND  PROFESSOR,  UNTIL  HIS  ENTRY 
ON  THE  WAR  OF  REFORMATION— Iö0b-lbl7. 


CHAPTEB   I. 

AT    THE    CONVENT   AT    ERFUßT,    TILL    1508. 

Luther's  resolve  to  follow  a  monastic  life  was  arrived  at 
suddenly,  as  we  have  seen.  But  he  weighed  that  resolve 
well  in  his  mind,  and  just  as  carefully  considered  the  choice 
of  the  convent  which  he  entered. 

The  Augustinian  monks,  whose  society  he  announced 
his  intention  to  join,  belonged  at  that  time  to  the  most 
important  monastic  order  in  Germany.  So  much  had 
already  been  said  with  justice,  in  the  way  of  complaint  and 
ridicule,  of  the  depravation  of  monastic  life,  its  idleness, 
hypocrisy,  and  gross  immorality,  that  many  of  them  fancied 
that  the  solemn  renunciation  of  marriage  and  the  w^orld's 
goods,  and  the  absolute  submission  of  their  wills  to  the 
commands  of  their  superiors  and  the  regulations  of  their 
Order,  constituted  true  service  to  God,  and  raised  them  to  a 
peculiar  position  of  holiness  and  merit.  Outward  disci- 
pline, at  all  events,  was  universally  insisted  on.  Among 
the  German  institutions  of  this  Order,  whilst  neglect  and 
depravity  had  crept  in  elsewhere,  a  large  number  had,  for 
some  time  past,  distinguished  themselves  by  a  strict  ad- 
herence to  their  old  statutes,  originating,  it  was  supposed, 
from  their  founder  St.  Augustine,  but  reiating,  at  the  best, 
to  mere  matters  of  form.     These  institutions  formed  them- 


AT   THE   CONVENT  AT  ERFURT  41 

selves  into  an  association,  presided  over  by  a  Vicar  of  the 
Order,  as  he  was  called,  a  Vicar-General  for  Germany.  To 
this  association  belonged  the  convent  at  Erfurt.  Its  inmates 
were  treated  with  marked  favour  and  respect  by  the  higher 
and  educated  classes  in  the  town.  They  were  said  to  be 
active  in  preaching  and  in  the  care  of  souls,  and  to  culti- 
vate among  themselves  the  study  of  theology.  Arnoldi, 
Luther's  teacher,  belonged  to  this  convent.  As  the  Order 
possessed  no  property,  but  all  its  members  lived  on  alms, 
the  monks  went  about  the  town  and  country  to  collect  gifts 
of  money,  bread,  cheese,  and  other  victuals. 

According  to  the  rules  of  the  Order,  applications  for 
admission  were  not  gi^anted  at  once,  but  time  was  taken  to 
see  whether  the  applicant  was  in  earnest.  After  that  he 
was  received  as  a  novice  for  at  least  a  year  of  probation. 
Until  that  year  expii'ed  he  was  at  liberty  to  reconsider  his 
wish. 

Luther,  before  taking  this  final  step,  thought  of  his 
parents,  with  a  view  to  lay  before  them  his  resolve.  The 
monastic  brethren,  however,  endeavom-ed  to  dissuade  him, 
by  reminding  him  how  one  must  leave  father  and  mother 
for  Christ  and  His  Cross,  and  how  no  one  who  has  put  his 
hand  to  the  plough  and  looks  back  is  fit  for  the  kingdom  of 
God.  Upon  his  writing  to  his  lather  on  the  subject,  the 
latter,  strong  in  the  conviction  of  his  paternal  rights,  flew 
into  a  passion  with  his  son.  'My  father,'  says  Luther 
later, '  was  near  going  mad  about  it ;  he  was  ill  satisfied,  and 
would  not  allow  it.  He  sent  me  an  answer  in  writing, 
addressing  me  in  terms  that  showed  his  displeasure,  and 
renouncing  all  further  affection.'  Soon  after  he  lost  two  of 
his  sons  by  the  plague.  This  epidemic  had  likewise  broken 
out  so  violently  at  Erfurt,  that  about  harvest-time  whole 
crowds  of  students  fled  with  their  teachers  h'om  the  town, 
and  Luther's  father  received  news  that  his  son  Martin  had 
also  fallen  a  victim.  His  fi'iends  then  urged  him  that,  if 
the  report  proved  false,  he  ought  at  least  to  devote  his 


42  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 

dearest  to  God,  by  letting  this  son  who  stul  remained  to 
him,  enter  the  blessed  Order  of  God's  servants.  At  last  the 
father  let  himself  be  talked  over  ;  but  he  yielded,  as  Luther 
informs  us,  with  a  sad  and  reluctant  heart. 

The  young  novice  was  welcomed  among  his  brethren 
with  hymns  of  joy,  and  prayers,  and  other  ceremonies. 
He  was  soon  clothed  in  the  garb  of  his  Order.  Over  a 
white  woollen  shirt  he  was  made  to  wear  a  frock  and  cowl  of 
black  cloth,  with  a  black  leathern  gh'dle.  Whenever  he  put 
these  on  or  off  a  Latin  prayer  was  repeated  to  him  aloud, 
that  the  Lord  might  put  off  the  old  and  put  on  the  new  man, 
fashioned  according  to  God.  Above  the  cowl  he  received  a 
scapulary,  as  it  was  called — in  other  words,  a  narrow  strip 
of  cloth  hanging  over  shoulders,  breast,  and  back,  and 
reaching  down  to  his  feet.  This  was  meant  to  signify  that 
he  took  upon  him  the  yoke  of  Him  who  said,  '  My  yoke  is 
easy,  and  my  burden  is  light.'  At  the  same  time,  he  was 
handed  over  to  a  superior,  appointed  to  take  charge  of  the 
novices,  to  introduce  them  to  the  practices  of  monastic 
devotion,  to  superintend  their  conduct,  and  to  watch  over 
their  souls. 

Above  all,  it  was  held  important  that  the  monks  should 
be  taught  to  subdue  their  own  wills.  They  had  to  learn  to 
endure,  without  opposition,  whatever  was  imposed  upon 
them,  and  that,  indeed,  all  the  more  cheerfully,  the  more 
distasteful  it  appeared.  Any  tendency  to  pride  was  over- 
come by  enjoining  immediately  the  most  menial  offices  on 
the  offender.  Friends  of  Luther  tell  us  how,  during  his  first 
period  of  probation  in  particular,  he  had  to  perform  the 
meanest  daily  labour  with  brush  and  broom,  and  how  his 
jealous  brethren  took  particular  pleasure  in  seeing  the 
proud  young  graduate  of  yesterday  trudge  through  the 
streets,  with  his  beggar's  wallet  on  his  back,  by  the  side  of 
another  monk  more  accustomed  to  the  work.  At  first,  we 
are  told,  the  university  interceded  on  his  behalf  as  a  member 
of  their  own  body,  and  obtained  for  him  at  least  some  relaxa- 


AT  THE   CONVENT  AT  ERFURT.  43 

tion  from  his  menial  duties.  From  Luther's  own  Hps,  in  after 
hfe,  we  hear  not  a  word  of  complaint  about  any  special  vexa- 
tions and  burdens.  As  far  as  was  possible,  he  did  not  allow 
them  to  daunt  him  ;  nay,  he  longed  for  even  severer  exer- 
cises, to  enable  him  to  win  the  favour  of  God.  Even  as  a 
Eeformer  he  remembered  with  gratitude  the  '  Pedagogue,' 
or  superintendent  of  his  noviciate  ;  he  was  a  fine  old  man, 
he  tells  us,  a  true  Christian  under  that  execrable  cowl. 

The  novice  found  each  day,  as  it  went  by,  fully  occupied 
with  the  repetition  of  set  prayers  and  the  performance  of 
other  acts  of  devotion.  For  the  day  and  night  together 
there  were  seven  or  eight  appointed  hours  of  prayer,  or 
Uorcß,  During  each  of  these  the  brethren  who  were  not 
yet  priests  had  to  say  twenty-five  Paternosters  with  the 
Ave  Maria,-  more  ample  formulas  of  prayer  being  prescribed 
meanwhile  to  the  priests.  Luther  was  also  hatroduced 
already  then  to  certain  theological  studies,  which  were 
under  the  supervision  of  two  learned  fathers  of  the  monas- 
tery. But  what  was  of  the  most  importance  for  him  was 
that  a  Bible  —the  Latin  translation  then  in  general  use  in 
the  Church — was  put  into  his  hands.  Just  about  this  time, 
a  new  code  of  statutes  had  come  in  force  for  these  Augus- 
tinian  convents,  drawn  up  by  Staupitz,  the  Vicar  of  the 
Order,  which  enjoined,  as  matters  of  duty,  assiduous  read- 
ing, devout  attention  to  the  Hours,  and  a  zealous  study  of 
Holy  Writ.  Teachers  were  wanting  to  Luther,  and  he 
found  it  very  difficult  to  understand  all  he  read.  But  with 
genuine  appetite  he  read  himself,  so  to  speak,  into  his 
Bible,  and  clung  to  it  ever  afterwards. 

At  the  end  of  his  year  of  probation  followed  his  solemn 
admission  to  the  Order.  Faithfully  '  unto  death  '  did  Luther 
then  promise  to  live  according  to  the  rules  of  the  holy 
father  Augustine,  and  to  render  obedience  to  Almighty  God, 
to  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  to  the  prior  of  the  monastery. 
Before  doing  so,  he  put  on  anew  the  dress  of  his  Order, 
which  had  been  consecrated  with  holy  water  and  incense. 


44 


LUTHER  AS   MONK  AND   PROFESSOR. 


The  prior  received  his  vows  and  si^rinkled  holy  water  upon 
him  as  he  prostrated  himself  upon  the  ground  in  the  form 
of  a  cross.  When  the  ceremony  was  over,  his  brethren 
congratulated  him  on  being  now  like  an  innocent  child 
fresh  from  the  baptism.  He  was  then  given  a  cell  of  his 
own,  with  table,  bedstead,  and  chair.     It  looked  out  upon 


Fig.  4. — Luther's  Cell  at  Erfurt. 

the  cloistered  yard  of  the  monastery.     It  was  destroyed  by 
a  fire  on  March  7,  1872. 

Luther  now,  by  an  inviolable  promise,  had  bound  himself 
to  that  vocation  through  which  he  asj^ired  to  gain  heaven. 
The  means  whereby  he  hoped  to  realise  his  aspiration 
were  abundantly  provided  for  him  in  his  new  home.     If  he 


AT   THE   CONVENT  AT  ERFURT  45 

sought  the  favour  of  the  Virgin  and  of  other  saints  who 
should  intercede  for  him  before  the  judgment-seat  of  God 
and  Christ,  he  found  at  once  in  his  Order  a  fervent  worship 
of  the  Virgin  in  particular,  and  all  possible  directions  for 
her  service.  The  doctrine  of  the  Immaculate  Conception, 
which  Pius  IX.,  in  our  own  days,  first  ventured  to  raise 
into  a  dogma  of  the  Church,  was  zealously  defended  by 
the  Augustinians,  and  firmly  maintained  by  Luther  himself, 
even  after  the  beginning  of  his  war  of  Keformation.  John 
Palz,  one  of  his  two  theological  teachers  in  the  convent, 
wrote  profusely  in  honour  of  this  doctrine,  and  described 
all  Christians  as  its  spiritual  children.  Under  its  mantle, 
says  Luther,  he  had  to  creep  into  the  presence  of  Christ. 
From  the  multitude  of  other  saints  Luther  selected  a 
number  as  his  constant  helpers  in  need.  We  notice  par- 
ticularly that  among  these,  in  addition  to  St.  Anne  and 
St.  George,  was  the  Apostle  Thomas  ;  from  him  who  him- 
self had  once  betrayed  such  cowardice  and  want  of  faith 
he  might  well  hope  for  peculiar  sympathy.  We  have 
already  mentioned  the  set  prayers  which  filled  up  a  great 
portion  of  the  day.  He  was  required  above  all  things  to 
learn  and  repeat  them  accurately,  word  by  word.  After- 
wards, as  he  tells  us,  the  Horce  were  read  aloud  after  the 
manner  of  magpies,  jackdaws,  or  parrots. 

If  he  wished  in  penitence  to  be  freed  from  the  sins 
which  had  tormented  him  so  long,  and  were  a  daily  burden 
on  his  conscience,  the  means  of  confession  provided  by  the 
Church  were  always  ready  for  him  in  the  convent.  Once  a 
week,  at  the  least,  every  brother  had  to  attend  the  private 
confessional.  All  his  sins,  without  exception,  had  then  to 
bQ  revealed,  if  he  wished  to  obtain  for  them  forgiveness. 
Luther  endeavoured  to  unbosom  to  his  father-confessor  all 
he  had  done  from  his  youth  up ;  but  this  was  too  much 
even  for  the  priest.  It  was  by ,  means  of  a  complete  in- 
ward contrition,  corresponding  to  the  infinite  burden  of  sin, 
that  the  person  confessing  was  to  make  himself  worthy  of 


46  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 

the  forgiveness  which  the  priest  then  testified  to  him  by 
absolution.  According  to  the  prevaiHng  doctrine,  however, 
what  was  wanting  to  the  penitent  in  completeness  of  con- 
trition, was  supplied  by  the  Sacrament  of  Absolution.  But 
the  punishments  reserved  by  God  for  sinners  were  not  sup- 
posed to  be  ended  by  this  absolution  or  forgiveness ;  these 
had  to  be  atoned  for  by  peculiar  observances,  imposed  by 
the  priest,  and  by  prayer,  alms,  fasting,  and  other  acts  of 
mortification.  For  him  who  was  not  forgiven,  remained 
hell ;  for  him  who  had  not  expiated  his  sins,  at  least  the 
fear  and  pains  of  purgatory.  Such  was  and  still  is  the 
teaching  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

Thus  Luther  was  now  summoned  and  directed  to  pursue 
methodically  the  painful  work  of  self-examination,  which 
had  oppressed  him  even  before  he  entered  the  convent,  and 
to  use  all  the  means  of  grace  here  offered  to  him.     But 
the  more  he  searched  into  his  life  and  thoughts,  the  more 
transgressions   of   God's    will    he    found,    and   the   more 
grievously  did   they   afflict   his   conscience.      It  was  not, 
indeed,  as  might  have  been  imagined  with  a  strong  young 
man  like  himself,  a  question  of  any  sensual  appetites,  stimu- 
lated all  the  more  by  the  restraints  of  the  convent.     It 
was  with  the  passions  of  anger,  hatred,  and  envy  against 
his  brethren  and  fellow-creatures,  that  he  had  to  reproach 
himself.    Those  who  disliked  him  accused  him  in  particular 
of  self-conceit,  and  of  .letting  his  temper  break  out  too 
easily.     Faults  of  that  description,  in  thought,  word,  or 
deed,  were  to  his  own  conscience  as  deadly  sins,  though  to 
the  priest  who  listened  to  him  at  confession,  they  seemed 
too  trifling  to  call  for  enumeration.     To  these  were  added 
a  number  of  smaller  offences  against  the  ordinances  of  the 
Church  and  the  convent,  with  reference  to  outward  obser- 
vances and  forms  of  worship,  prayers,  and  so  on,  all  of 
which,  insignificant  as  they  must  seem  to  us,  the  Church 
was  accustomed  to  treat  as  grievous  sins.     Finally,  there 
arose  in  his  mind  a  constant  restlessness,  which  made  him 


AT   THE   CONVENT  AT  ERFURT.  47 

look  for  sins  where  none  in  reality  existed.  What  he  had 
said  once  before  about  washing  one's  hands,  that  it  only 
made  them  become  fouler,  he  had  now  to  experience  for 
himself.  His  contrition  made  him  feel  pain  and  fear  in 
abundance,  but  not  so  as  to  enable  him  to  say  to  himself 
that  it  purged  the  evil  in  the  sight  of  God.  Absolution 
was  pronounced  over  him  again  and  again,  but  who  ever 
gave  him  any  assurance  that  he  had  fulfilled  its  conditions, 
and  therefore  could  really  confide  in  its  efficacy  ?  As  for 
acts  of  penance,  he  willingly  performed  them,  and,  indeed, 
did  far  more  in  the  way  of  prayer,  fasting,  and  vigil  than 
either  the  rules  of  the  convent  demanded  or  his  father- 
confessor  enjoined.  His  body,  from  his  hardy  training  as 
a  child,  was  well  prepared  for  such  austerities,  but  in  spite 
of  that,  he  had  for  a  long  while  to  suffer  from  their  results. 
Luther,  in  later  years,  could  well  bear  witness  of  himself 
that  he  had  caused  his  own  body  far  more  pain  and  torture 
with  those  practices  of  penance  than  all  his  enemies  and 
persecutors  had  caused  to  theirs. 

What  leisure  remained,  after  his  other  monastic  duties 
were  over,  he  devoted  most  industriously  to  the  study  of 
theology.  He  read,  in  particular,  the  writings  of  the  later 
Scholastic  theologians,  with  whom  he  had  partly  occupied 
himself  during  his  philosophical  course.  Of  some  of  these, 
such  as  the  Englishman  Occam,  in  particular,  whose  acute- 
ness  of  reascming  he  especially  admired,  there  were  writings 
which,  in  reference  to  questions  of  external  Church  polity, 
might  have  led  him  even  then  into  paths  of  his  own,  if  his 
mind  had  been  disposed  for  it.  These  writings  were  directed 
against  the  absolute  power  of  the  Pope  in  the  Church,  and 
against  his  aggressions  in  the  territory  of  Empire  and 
State.  But  any  such  aim  was  very  far  removed  from  the 
monastic  Order  to  which  Luther  had  devoted  himself,  and 
from  the  theologians  who  were  here  his  teachers.  Palz, 
whom  we  have  mentioned  already,  had  especially  distin- 
guished  himself  by  his  glorification  of  the   Papal   indul- 


48  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 

gences.  Moreover,  the  whole  Order,  and  the  German 
convents  belonging  to  it  in  particular,  were  indebted  to  the 
Pope  for  various  acts  of  favour.  Nor  was  Luther  himself  less 
careful  to  hold  firmly  to  the  ordinances  of  the  hierarchy, 
than  to  avail  himself  of  the  means  of  salvation  offered  by 
the  Church. 

What  at  all  times  in  his  theological  studies  enlisted  his 
warmest  personal  interest  was  the  difficult  question,  how 
sinners  could  obtain  everlasting  salvation.     And  all  that 
he  came  to  read  on  that   subject  in  the  writings  of  those 
theologians,  and  to  hear  from  his  learned  teachers  in  the 
convent,  served  only  to  increase  his  fruitless  inward  wrest- 
lings, and  his  anxiety    and    sense   of   need.     The   great 
father  of  the  Church,  from  whom  his  Order  was  named, 
and  to  whom  their  rules  were  ascribed,   had  once,  on  the 
ground  of  his  own  experiences  of  the  struggle  with  sin  and 
the  flesh,  laid  down  with  great  force,  and  in  a  triumphant 
controversy  with  his  opponents,  the  doctrine  that,  as  the 
Apostle  says,  salvation  depends  not  on  the  conduct  of  man, 
but  on  the  grace  of  God,  not  on  the  will  of  man,  but  on 
the  willingness  of  God  to  pardon,  "Who  alone  transforms 
the  sinner,  and  grants  him  the  power  and  the  will  for  good. 
But  any  knowledge  or  understanding  of  this  theology  of 
Augustme  was  as  strange  to  his   own   Order   as   to   the 
Scholastics.     It  was  taught,  indeed,  that  heaven  was  too 
high  for  man  to  attain  to  otherwise  than  by  the  grace  of 
God.     But  it  was  also  taught  that  the  sinner,  by  his  own 
natural  strength,  both  could  and  ought  to  do  enough  in 
God's  sight  to  earn  that  grace  which  would  then  help  him 
further  on  the  way  to  heaven.     He  who  had  thus  obtained 
that  grace,  it  was  said,   felt  himself  enabled  and  unpelled 
to  do  even  more  than  God's  commands  require.    Pieference 
to  the  bitter  passion  and  death  of  the  Saviour  was  not 
omitted,  it  is  true,  by  the  theologians  with  whom  Luther 
had  to  do,  and  frequently,  as,  for  example,  by  his  teacher 
Palz,  was  impressed  on  Christian  hearts  in  words  full  of 


AT   THE   CONVENT  AT  ERFURT.  49 

feeling.  But  the  chief  stress  was  laid,  not  on  the  redeem- 
ing love  on  which  man  could  rest  his  confident  assurance, 
but  on  the  necessity  of  offering  oneself  to  Him  who  had 
offered  Himself  for  man,  and  of  submitting  even  to  the 
pains  of  death,  in  imitation  of  Him,  and  to  pay  the  penalty 
of  sin.  In  this  way,  again  and  again,  Luther  saw  before 
him  claims  on  the  part  of  God  which  he  could  never  hope 
to  satisfy.  His  sorest  trial  was  caused  by  the  thought  that 
God  Himself  should  have  the  will  to  let  him  fail  after  all 
his  fruitless  efforts,  and  finally  be  numbered  with  the  lost. 
And  it  was  just  with  the  later  Scholastics  that  he  found, 
not  indeed  a  theory  according  to  which  God  had  simply 
predestined  a  part  of  mankind  to  perdition,  but  a  general 
conception  of  God  which  would  represent  Him  as  a  Being 
not  so  much  of  holy  love,  as  of  arbitrary,  absolute  will. 

Luther  spent  two  years  in  the  convent  amidst  these 
strivings  and  inward  sufferings.  His  spiritual  life,  as  it 
was  called,  of  strict  discipline  and  asceticism  was  quoted 
in  other  convents  as  a  model  for  imitation.  Now  and  then, 
indeed,  he  felt  himself  puffed  up  with  a  sense  of  superior 
sanctity — '  a  proud  saint,'  as  he  afterwards  called  himself. 
But  humility  was  the  ruling  temper  of  his  mind.  Fre- 
quently, in  after  life,  he  described  his  condition  as  a  warn- 
ing to  others.  Thus  he  speaks  of  the  disciples  of  the  law, 
who  try  by  their  own  works,  by  constant  labour,  by  wearing 
shh'ts  of  hair,  by  self;Scourging,  by  fasting,  by  every  means, 
in  short,  to  satisfy  the  law.  Such  a  one,  he  tells  us,  he 
himself  had  been.  But  he  had  also  learned  by  experience, 
he  adds,  what  happens  when  a  man  is  tempted,  and  death 
or  danger  frightens  him ;  how  he  despairs,  nay,  would  fly 
fiom  God  as  from  the  devil,  and  would  rather  that  there  were 
no  God  at  all.  So  great  became  his  inward  sufferings,  that 
he  thought  both  bqdy  and  soul  must  succumb.  Thus  he 
tells  us  later  on,  when  speaking  of  the  torments  of  purga- 
tory, of  a  man,  who  doubtless  was  himself,  how  he  had 
often  endured  such  agony,  only  momentary  it  is  true,  but 


50  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 

SO  hellish  in  its  violence,  that  no  tongue  could  express  nor 
pen  describe  it ;  that,  had  it  lasted  longer,  even  for  half 
an  hour,  or  only  five  minutes,  he  must  have  died  then 
and  there,  and  his  bones  have  been  consumed  to  ashes. 
He  himself  saw  afterwards  in  these  pains,  visitations  of  a 
special  kind,  such  as  God  does  not  send  to  everyone.  But 
they  served  him  then  as  a  proof,  and  one  of  universal 
application,  that  that  school  of  the  law,  as  he  called  it, 
would  bring  no  real  holiness  either  to  others  or  himself, 
but  must  teach  a  man  to  despair  of  himself  and  of  any 
claims  or  merits  of  his  own.  And,  indeed,  as  we  know 
from  all  that  had  gone  before,  it  was  not  simply  the  ex- 
ternal barrenness  of  the  regulations  of  Church  and  convent, 
or  a  sense  of  imperfect  fulfilment  on  his  part,  that  caused 
his  restlessness  of  conscience ;  what  gave  him  the  deepest 
anxiety  and  harassed  him  the  most  were  those  very  inward 
stirrings,  which  revealed  to  him  his  opposition  to  God's 
eternal  demands,  the  fulfilment  of  which  he  thought  indis- 
pensable for  reconciliation  to  God. 

His  experiences  at  the  convent  led  him  to  the  perception 
of  those  principles  which  formed  the  groundwork  of  his 
preaching  as  a  Keformer.  From  his  exemplary  conduct 
there,  and  his  wonderful  and  active  conversion,  he  was 
compared  to  St.  Paul.  In  quite  another  sense  he  resembled 
the  great  Apostle.  The  latter,  when  a  Pharisee,  had 
laboured  to  justify  himself  before  God  by  the  law  and  the 
prophets.  '  0  wretched  man  that  I  am,'  Luther  there 
must  have  exclaimed  of  himself,  and  afterwards,  looking 
back  on  his  experiences,  have  counted  all  as  '  dung  and  loss,' 
in  order  to  be  justified  rather  by  faith  through  the  grace  of 
God  and  the  Saviour,  and  to  become  free  and  holy. 

Just  as,  meanwhile,  inside  the  Catholic  Church,  the 
laws,  dogmas,  and  School  theories  relating  to  the  means  of 
salvation,  were  never  able  to  supplant  entirely  the  thought 
of  the  simple  testimony  of  the  Bible,  and  of  the  Church's 
own  confession  of  God's  forgiving  love  and  His  redeeming 


AT  THE   CONVENT  AT  ERFURT.  51 

and  absolving  grace,  or  to  prevent  simple,  pious  Christians 
from  seeking  here  a  refuge  in  the  inmost  depths  of  their 
hearts,  so  now,  at  this  very  convent  of  Erfurt,  where 
Luther's  inward  development  in  those  theories  and  dogmas 
had  reached  so  high  a  pitch,  he  received  also  the  first 
serious  impressions  in  the  other  direction.  They  found 
with  him  a  difficult  and  gradual  entrance,  from  the  energy 
and  consistency  with  which  he  had  taken  up  his  original 
standpoint.  But  with  all  the  more  energy,  and  with  perfect 
consistency,  did  he  abandon  that  standpoint,  when  new 
light  dawned  upon  him  fi'om  his  new  conception  of  the 
truth. 

Luther's  teacher  at  the  convent,  by  whom  we  shall  have 
to  understand  the  superintendent  of  the  novices,  had 
already  made  a  deep  impression  upon  him,  by  reminding 
him  of  the  words  of  the  Apostles'  Creed  about  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins,  and  representing  to  him,  what  Luther  had 
never  ventured  to  apply  to  himself,  that  the  Lord  himself 
had  commanded  us  to  hope.  For  this  he  referred  him  to 
a  passage  in  the  writings  of  St.  Bernard,  where  that 
fervent  preacher,  imbued  though  he  was  in  his  theology 
with  the  Church  notions  of  the  middle  ages,  insists  on  the 
importance  of  this  very  faith  in  God's  forgiveness,  and 
appeals  to  the  words  of  St.  Paul  that  man  is  justified  by 
grace  through  faith.  Eemarks  of  this  kind  sank  into 
Luther's  mind,  and  took  root  there,  though  their  fruit  only 
ripened  by  degrees.  Of  his  teacher  Arnoldi,  also,  he  spoke 
with  admiration  and  gratitude,  for  the  comfort  he  had 
known  how  to  impart  to  him. 

But  the  one  who  at  this  time  acquired  by  far  the  most 
potent,  wholesome,  and  lasting  influence  upon  Luther,  was 
the  Vicar-General,  John  von  Staupitz.  He  was  a  remark- 
able man,  of  a  noble  and  pious  disposition,  and  a  refined 
and  far-seeing  mind.  A  master  of  the  forms  of  Scholastic 
theology,  he  was  also  deeply  read  in  Scripture ;  he  made 
its   teachings  the  special    standard  of  his  life,    and   was 

E  2 


S^  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 

careful  to  enjoin  others  to  do  the  same.  He  strove  after  an 
inward,  practical  life  in  God,  not  confined  to  mere  forms 
and  observances.  Sharp  conflicts  and  controversies  were 
not  to  his  taste  ;  but  mildly  and  discreetly  he  sought  to 
plant,  in  his  own  field  of  work,  and  to  leave  what  he  had 
planted  in  God's  name  to  grow  up. 

It  was  during  his  visits  to  Erfurt  that  Staupitz  came  in 
contact  with  the  gifted,  thoughtful,  and  melancholy  young 


Fig.  5.— Staupitz. 
(From  the  Portrait  in  St.  Peter's  Convent  at  Salzburg.) 

monk.  He  treated  Luther,  both  in  conversation  and  letter, 
with  fatherly  confidence,  and  Luther  unlocked  to  him,  as  to 
a  father,  his  heart  and  its  cares.  Upon  his  wishing  to  confess 
to  him  all  his  many  small  sins,  Staupitz  insisted  first  on  dis- 
tinguishing between  what  were  really  sins,  and  what  were  not ; 
as  for  self-imagined  sins,  or  such  a  patchwork  of  offences  as 
Luther  laid  before  him,  he  would  not  listen  to  them  ;  that  was 
not  the  kind  of  seriousness,  he  would  say,  that  God  wished  to 
have.  Luther  tormented  himself  with  a  system  of  penance, 
consisting  of  actual   pain,   punishments,    and   expiations. 


AT  THE   CONVENT  AT  ERFURT  53 

Staupitz  taught  him  that  repentance,  in  the  Scriptural 
meaning,  was  an  inward  change  and  conversion,  which 
must  j)roceed  from  the  love  of  holiness  and  of  God ;  and 
that,  for  peace  with  God,  he  must  not  look  to  his  own 
good  resolutions  to  lead  a  better  life,  which  he  had  not  the 
strength  to  carry  out,  or  to  his  own  acts,  which  could  never 
satisfy  the  law  of  God,  but  must  trust  with  patience  to 
God's  forgiving  mercy,  and  learn  to  see  in  Christ,  whom 
God  permitted  to  suffer  for  the  sins  of  man,  not  the  threaten- 
ing Judge,  but  rather  the  loving  Saviour.  To  Christ  above 
all  he  referred  him,  when  Luther  pondered  on  the  secret*" 
eternal  will  of  God,  and  was  near  despair.  God's  eternal 
purpose,  he  would  say,  shines  clearly  in  the  wounds  of 
Christ.  Did  his  temptations  not  cease,  he  bade  him  see  in 
them  means  to  draw  him  to  the  love  of  God.  The  thoughts 
of  Staupitz  turned  in  this  on  the  temptations  to  pride, 
which  might  themselves  be  the  means  of  curing  that  pride, 
and  on  the  great  things  for  which  God  wished  to  prepare 
him.  In  a  simple,  practical  manner,  and  from  the  expe- 
riences of  his  own  life,  he  would  thus  counsel  and  converse 
with  Luther.  During  the  long  course  of  a  confidential 
intercourse  with  his  friend,  his  own  theology  in  later  years 
became  visibl}^  developed,  and  his  pupil  of  earlier  days 
became  afterwards  his  teacher.  But  Luther,  both  then 
and  throughout  his  life,  spoke  of  him  with  grateful  affection 
as  his  spiritual  father,  and  thanked  God  that  he  had  been 
helped  out  of  his  temptations  by  Dr.  Staupitz,  without 
whom  he  would  have  been  swallowed  up  in  them  and 
perished. 

The  first  firm  ground,  however,  for  his  convictions  and 
his  inner  life,  and  the  foundation  for  all  his  later  teachings 
and  works,  was  found  by  Luther  in  his  own  persevering 
study  of  Holy  Writ.  In  this  also  he  was  encouraged  by 
Staupitz,  who  must,  however,  have  been  amazed  at  his 
indefatigable  industry  and  zeal.  For  the  interpretation  of 
the  Bible  the  means  at  his  command  were  meagre  in  the 


54  LUTHER  AS  MOXK  AXD  PROFESSOR. 

extreme.  He  himself  explored  in  all  cases  to  their  verv 
centre  the  truths  of  Christian  salvation  and  the  highest 
questions  of  moral  and  religious  life.  A  shigle  passage"  of 
importance  would  occupy  his  thoughts  for  days.  Signih- 
cant  words,  which  he  was  not  able  yet  to  comprehend, 
remained  fixed  in  his  mhid,  and  he  canied  them  suently 
about  with  him.  Thus  it  was,  for  example.,  as  he  tells  us, 
with  the  text  in  Ezekiel,  '  I  will  not  the  death  of  a  sinner,' 
a  passage  which  engrossed  his  earnest  thoughts. 

It  was  the  tlhi'd  and  last  year  of  his  monastic  life  at 
Erfui't  that  brought  with  it,  as  far  as  we  see,  the  dee-isive 
turn  for  his  inward  struggles  and  lalx)ui's. 

In  his  second  year,  on  May  2,  1507,  he  received,  by 
command  of  his  superiors,  his  solemn  ordination  as  a 
priest.  It  was  then  for  the  first  time  since  his  entiw  into 
the  convent  against  his  father's  wiU,  that  the  latter  saw 
him  again.  A  convenient  day  was  expressly  arranged  for 
him,  to  enable  him  to  take  pai't  personally  at  the  solemnity. 
He  rode  into  Erfurt  with  a  stately  ti-aia  ;of  friends  and 
relations.  But  in  his  opinion  of  the  step  taken  by  his  son 
he  remained  unalterably  firm.  At  the  entertainment  which 
was  given  in  the  convent  to  the  young  priest,  the  latter 
tried  to  extort  from  him  a  fi'iendly  remark  upon  the  subject, 
by  askiug  him  why  he  seemed  so  angry,  when  monastic  hfe 
was  such  a  high  and  holy  thing.  His  father  rej^Hed  hi  the 
presence  of  all  the  company,  '  Learned  brothers,  have  you 
not  read  in  Holy  Writ,  that  a  man  must  honour-  father  and 
mother  ?  "  And  on  being  reminded  how  his  son  had  been 
called,  nay,  compelled  to  this  new  hfe  by  heaven,  '  "V^.'ould 
to  God,'  he  answered,  '  it  were  no  spirit  of  the  devu  I  '  He 
let  them  understand  that  he  was  there,  eatincr  and  drinking, 
as  a  matter  of  duty,  but  that  he  would  much  rather  be 
away. 

To  Luther,  however,  the  post  of  high  digmity  to  which 
he  was  now  promoted  brought  new  fear  and  anxiety.  .He 
had  now  to  appear  before  God  as  a  priest ;  \cj  have  Chvist's 


AT   THE   CONVENT  AT  ERFURT.  55 

Body,  tho  very  Christ  Himself,  and  God  actually  ])r('H<'nt 
before  him  at  the  mass  on  the  altar ;  to  offer  the  Jiody  oi" 
Christ  as  a  sacrilice  to  the  livin«^  and  eternal  God.  Added 
to  this,  there  were  a  multitude  of  forms  to  observe,  any 
oversight  wherein  was  a  sin.  All  tliis  so  ov(!rpow(;red  him 
at  his  lirst  mass,  that  he  could  scarcely  remain  at  the  altar  ; 
he  was  well-nigh,  as  he  said  afterwards,  a  dead  man. 

With  these  priestly  functions  he  unit(Kl  an  assiduous 
devotion  to  his  saints.  By  reading  mass  every  morning, 
he  invoked  twenty-one  particular  saints,  whom  he  had 
chosen  as  his  helpers,  taking  three  at  a  time,  so  as  to 
include  them  all  within  the  wcu^k. 

As  regards  the  most  important  problems  of  life,  In's 
study  of  the  Scriptures  gradually  revealed  to  him  the  light 
which  determined  his  future  convictions.  The  path  had 
already  been  pointed  out  to  him  by  the  words  of  Ht.  Paul 
quoted  by  St.  Bernard.  When  looking  ])ack,  at  the  close 
of  his  life,  on  this  his  inward  development,  he  tells  us  how 
perplexed  he  had  been  by  what  8t.  Paul  said  of  the 
*  righteousness  of  God  '  (Bom.  i.  17).  For  a  long  time  he 
troubled  himself  about  the  expression,  connecting  it  as  he 
did,  according  to  the  ruling  theology  of  the  day,  with  God's 
righteousness  in  His  punishment  of  sinners.  Bay  and 
night  he  pondered  over  the  meaning  and  context  of  the 
Apostle's  words.  But  at  length,  he  adds,  God  in  His  great 
mercy  revealed  to  him  that  what  St.  Paul  and  the  gospel 
proclaimed  was  a  righteousness  given  freely  to  us  by  the 
grace  of  God,  Who  forgives  those  who  have  faith  in  His 
message  of  mercy,  and  justifies  them,  and  gives  them 
eternal  life.  Therewith  the  gate  of  heaven  was  opened  to 
him,  and  thenceforth  the  whole  remaining  purport  of  God's 
word  became  clearly  revealed.  Still  it  was  only  by  degrees, 
during  the  latter  portion  of  his  stay  at  Erfurt,  and  even 
after  that,  that  he  arrived  at  this  full  perception  of  the 
truth. 

After  their  ordination  the  monks  received  the  title  of 


56  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 

fathers.  Luther  was  not  as  yet  reheved  of  the  duty  of 
gomg  out  with  a  brother  m  quest  of  alms.  But  he  was 
soon  employed  in  the  more  important  business  of  the 
Order,  as,  for  instance,  in  transactions  with  a  high  official 
of  the  Archbishop,  in  which  he  displayed  great  zeal  for  the 
priesthood  and  for  his  Order. 

With  the  Scholastic  theology  of  his  time,  albeit  even  now 
in  a  path  marked  out  by  himself,  his  keen  understanding 
and  happy  memory  had  enabled  him  to  become  thoroughly 
famuiar.  He  was  scarcely  twenty-five  years  old  when 
Staupitz,  occupied  with  making  provision  for  the  newly- 
founded  university  of  Wittenberg,  recognised  in  him  the 
right  man  for  a  professorial  chair. 


S7 


'       ^  Ol'   THE  '/^ 

UNIVERSITY 

CHAPTEK  II. 

CALL  TO  WITTENBERG.   JOURNEY  TO  ROME. 

Wittenberg  was  at  that  time  the  youngest  of  the  German 
universities.  It  was  founded  in  1502  by  the  Elector 
Frederick  the  Wise  of  Saxony,  a  man  pre-eminent  among 
the  German  princes,  not  only  from  his  prudence  and  circum- 
spection, but  also  from  his  faithful  care  for  his  country,  his 
genuine  love  for  knowledge,  and  his  deep  religious  feeling. 
His  country  was  not  a  rich  one.  Wittenberg  itself  was  a 
poor,  badly-built  town  of  about  three  thousand  inhabitants. 
But  the  Elector  showed  his  wisdom  above  all  by  his  right 
choice  of  men  whom  he  consulted  in  his  work,  and  to  whose 
hands  he  entrusted  its  conduct.  These,  in  their  turn,  were 
very  careful  to  select  talented  and  trustworthy  teachers  for 
the  institution,  which  was  to  depend  for  its  success  on  the 
attractions  offered  by  pure  learning,  and  not  those  of  out- 
ward show  and  a  luxurious  style  of  life  among  the  students. 
The  supervision  of  theology  was  entrusted  by  Frederick  to 
Staupitz,  whom  personally  he  held  in  high  esteem,  and 
who,  together  with  the  learned  and  versatile  Martin  Pollich 
of  Meirichstadt,  had  already  been  the  most  active  in  his 
service  in  promoting  the  foundation  of  the  university. 
Staupitz  himself  entered  the  theological  faculty  as  its  first 
Dean.  A  constant  or  regular  application  to  his  duties  was 
rendered  impossible  by  the  multifarious  business  of  his 
Order,  and  the  journeys  it  entailed.  But  in  his  very 
capacity  of  Vicar-General,  he  strove  to  supply  the  theo- 
logical needs  of  the  university,  and,  by  the  means  of  educa- 
tion thus   offered,   to   assist   the   members   of  his   Order. 


58  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 

Already  before  this  the  Augustinian  monks  had  had  a  settle- 
ment at  Wittenberg,  though  little  is  known  about  it.  A 
handsome  convent  was  built  for  them  in  1506.  In  a  short 
time  young  inmates  of  this  convent,  and  afterwards  more 
monks  of  the  same  Order  who  came  from  other  parts,  entered 
the  university  as  students  and  took  academical  degrees. 
The  patron  saint  of  the  University  was,  next  to  the  Virgin 
Mary,  St.  Augustine.  Trutvetter  of  Erfurt  became  pro- 
fessor of  theology  at  Wittenberg  in  1507.  It  was  early  in 
the  winter  of  1508-9,  when  Staupitz,  who  had  been  re-elected 
for  the  second  time,  w^as  still  dean  of  the  theological  faculty, 
that  Luther  w^as  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  summoned 
thither.  He  had  to  obey  not  merely  the  advice  and  wish  of 
an  affectionate  friend,  but  the  will  of  the  principal  of  his 
Order. 

As  hitherto  he  had  simply  graduated  as  a  master  in 
philosophy,  and  had  not  qualified  himself  academically  for 
a  professor  of  theology,  Luther  at  first  was  only  called  on 
to  lecture  on  those  philosophical  subjects  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  occupied  his  studies  at  Erfurt.  Theologians,  it  is 
true,  had  been  entrusted  with  these  duties,  just  as,  here  at 
Wittenberg,  the  first  dean  of  the  philosophical  faculty  was 
a  theologian,  and,  in  addition  to  that  indeed,  a  member  of 
the  Augustinian  Order.  But  from  the  beginning,  Luther 
was  anxious  to  exchange  the  province  of  philosophy  for  that 
of  theology,  meaning  thereby,  as  he  expressed  it,  that 
theology  which  searched  into  the  very  kernel  of  the  nut, 
the  heart  of  the  wheat,  the  marrow  of  the  bones.  So  far, 
he  was  already  confident  of  having  found  a  sure  ground  for 
his  Christian  faith,  as  well  as  for  his  inner  life,  and  having 
found  it,  of  being  able  to  begin  teaching  others.  Indeed, 
while  busily  engaged  in  his  first  lectures  on  philosophy,  he 
w^as  preparing  to  qualify  himself  for  his  theological  degrees. 
Here  also  he  had  to  begin  with  his  baccalaureate,  compri- 
sing in  fact  three  different  steps  in  the  theological  faculty, 
each  of  which  had  to  be  reached  by  an  examination  and 


CALL   TO   WITTENBERG.— JOURNEY  TO  ROME, 


59 


disputation.  The  first  step  was  that  of  bachelor  of  biblical 
knowledge,  which  qualified  him  to  lecture  on  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  The  second,  or  that  of  a  Sententiarius,  was 
necessary  for  lecturing  on  the  chief  compendium  of 
mediaeval  School-theology,  the  so-called  Sentences  of  Peter 
Lombardus,  the  due  performance  of  which  duty  led  to  the 
attainment  of  the  third  step.  Above  the  baccalaureate, 
with  its  three  grades,  came  the  rank  of  licentiate,  which 
gave  the  right  to  teach  the  whole  of  theology,  and  lastly  the 
formal,  solemn  admission  as  doctor  of  theology^  Already,  on 
March  9,  1509,  Luther  had  attained  his  first  step  in  the 
baccalaureate.  At  the  end  of  six  months  he  was  qualified, 
by  the  statutes  of  the  university,  to  reach  the  second  step, 
and  in  the  course  of  the  next  six  months  he  actually 
reached  it. 

But  before  gaining  his  new  rights  as  a  Sententiarius,  he 
was  summoned  back  by  the  authorities  of  his  Order  to 
Erfurt.  The  reason  we  do  not  know  ;  we  only  know  that 
he  entered  the  theological  faculty  there  as  professor,  receiv- 
ing, at  the  same  time,  the  recognition  of  the  academical 
rank  he  had  acquired  at  Wittenberg.  At  Erfurt  he  re- 
mained about  three  terms,  or  eighteen  months.  After  that 
he  returned  to  the  university  at  Wittenberg.  Trutvetter, 
towards  the  end  of  1510,  had  received  a  summons  back 
to  Erfurt  from  Wittenberg.  The  void  thus  caused  by  his 
summons  away  may  have  had  something  to  do  with 
Luther's  return  thither.  At  all  events  his  position  at 
Wittenberg  was  now  vastly  different  from  that  which  he 
had  previously  held.  No  theologian,  his  superior  in  years 
or  fame,  was  any  longer  above  him. 

Ere  long,  however,  Luther  received  another  commission 
from  his  Order  ;  a  proof  of  the  confidence  reposed  also  in 
his  zeal  for  the  Order,  his  practical  understanding,  and  his 
energy.  It  was  about  a  matter  in  which,  by  Staupitz's 
desire,  other  Augustinian  convents  in  Germany  were  to 
enter  into  a  union  with  the  reformed  convents   and  the 


6o  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 

Vicar  of  the  Order.  As  opposition  had  been  raised,  Luther 
in  1511,  no  doubt  at  the  suggestion  of  Staupitz,  was  sent 
on  this  matter  to  Eome,  where  the  decision  was  to  be  given. 
The  journey  thither  and  back  may  easily  have  taken  six 
weeks  or  more.  According  to  rule  and  custom,  two  monks 
were  always  sent  out  together,  and  a  lay-brother  was  given 
them  for  service  and  company.  They  used  to  make  their 
way  on  foot.  In  Kome  the  brethren  of  the  Order  were 
received  by  the  Augustinian  monastery  of  Maria  del  Popolo. 
Thus  Luther  went  forth  to  the  great  capital  of  the  world, 
to  the  throne  of  the  Head  of  the  Church.  He  remained 
there  four  weeks,  discharging  his  duties,  and  surrounded  by 
all  her  monuments  and  relics  of  ecclesiastical  interest. 

No  definite  account  of  the  result  of  the  business  he  had 
to  transact,  has  been  handed  down  to  us.  We  only  learn 
that  Staujjitz,  the  Vicar  of  the  Order,  was  afterwards  on 
friendly  relations  with  the  convents  which  had  opposed  his 
scheme,  and  that  he  refrained  from  urging  any  more 
unwelcome  innovations.  For  us,  however,  the  most  im- 
portant parts  of  this  journey  are  the  general  observations 
and  experiences  which  Luther  made  in  Italy,  and,  above 
all,  at  the  Papal  chair  itself.  He  often  refers  to  them  later 
in  his  speeches  and  writings,  in  the  midst  of  his  work  and 
warfare,  and  he  tells  us  plainly  how  important  to  him  after- 
wards was  all  that  he  there  saw  and  heard. 

The  devotion  of  a  pilgrim  inspired  him  as  he  arrived  at 
the  city  which  he  had  long  regarded  with  holy  veneration. 
It  had  been  his  wish,  during  his  troubles  and  heart-search- 
ings,  to  make  one  day  a  regular  and  general  confession 
in  that  city.  When  he  came  in  sight  of  her,  he  fell  upon 
the  earth,  raised  his  hands,  and  exclaimed  'Hail  to  thee, 
holy  Eome !  '  She  was  truly  sanctified,  he  declared  after- 
wards, through  the  blessed  martyrs,  and  their  blood  which 
had  flowed  within  her  walls.  But  he  added,  with  indigna- 
tion at  himself,  how  he  had  run  like  a  crazy  saint  on  a 
pilgrimage  through  all  the  chm-ches  and  catacombs,  and 


CALL    TO   WITTENBERG.^JOURNEY  TO  ROME.    6i 

had  believed  what  turned  out  to  be  a  mass  of  rank  lies  and 
impostures.  He  would  gladly  then  have  done  something 
for  the  welfare  of  his  friends'  souls  by  mass-reading  and 
acts  of  devotion  in  places  of  particular  sanctity.  He  felt 
downright  sorry,  he  tells  us,  that  his  parents  were  still 
alive,  as  he  might  have  performed  some  special  act  to 
release  them  from  the  pains  of  purgatory. 

But  in  all  this  he  found  no  real  peace  of  mind :  on  the 
contrary,  his  soul  was  stirred  to  the  consciousness  of 
another  way  of  salvation  which  had  already  begun  to 
dawn  upon  him.  Wlnlst  climbing,  on  his  knees  and  in 
prayer,  the  sacred  stairs  which  were  said  to  have  led  to  the 
Judgment-hall  of  Pilate,  and  whither,  to  this  day,  wor- 
shippers are  invited  by  the  promise  of  Papal  absolutions, 
he  thought  of  the  words  of  St.  Paul  in  his  Epistle  to  the 
Komans  (i.  17),  '  The  just  shall  live  by  faith.  As  for  any 
spiritual  enlightenment  and  consolation,  he  found  none 
among  the  priests  and  monks  of  Kome.  He  was  struck 
indeed  with  the  external  administration  of  business  and  the 
nice  arrangement  of  legal  matters  at  the  Papal  see.  But 
he  was  shocked  by  all  that  he  observed  of  the  moral  and 
religious  life  and  doings  at  this  centre  of  Christianity  ;  the 
immorality  of  the  clergy,  and  particularly  of  the  highest 
dignitaries  of  the  Church,  who  thought  themselves  highly 
virtuous  if  they  abstained  from  the  very  grossest  offences ; 
the  wanton  levity  with  which  the  most  sacred  names  and 
things  were  treated ;  the  frivolous  unbelief,  openly  expressed 
among  themselves  by  the  spiritual  pastors  and  masters 
of  the  Church.  He  complains  of  the  priests  scram- 
bling through  mass  as  if  they  were  juggling ;  while  he 
was  reading  one  mass,  he  found  they  had  finished  seven  : 
one  of  them  once  urged  him  to  be  quick  by  saying  '  Get 
on,  get  on,  and  make  haste  to  send  her  Son  home  to 
our  Lady.'  He  heard  jokes  even  made  about  the  priests 
when  consecrating  the  elements  at  mass,  repeating  in  Latin 
the  words  '  Bread  thou  art,  and  bread  thou  shalt  remain : 


62  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 

wine  thou  art,  and  wine  thou  shalt  remain.'  He  often  re- 
marked m  later  years  how  they  would  apply  in  derision  the 
term  '  good  Christian '  to  those  who  were  stupid  enough  to 
believe  in  Christian  truth,  and  to  be  scandalised  by  any- 
thing said  to  the  contrary.  No  one,  he  declared,  would 
believe  what  villanies  and  shameful  doings  were  then  in 
vogue,  if  they  had  not  seen  and  heard  them  with  their  own 
eyes  and  ears.  But  the  truth  of  his  testimony  is  confirmed 
by  those  very  men  whose  life  and  conduct  so  shocked  and 
revolted  him.  He  must  have  been  indignant,  moreover,  at 
the  contemptuous  tone  in  which  the  '  stupid  Germans  '  or 
'  German  beasts '  were  spoken  of,  as  persons  entitled  to  no 
notice  or  respect  at  Kome. 

He  was  astonished  at  the  pomp  and  splendour  which 
surrounded  the  Pope  when  he  appeared  in  public.  He  speaks, 
as  an  eye-witness,  of  the  processions,  like  those  of  a  triumph- 
ing monarch.     But  the  horrible  stories  were  then  still  fresh 
at  Kome  of  the  late  Pope  Alexander  and  his  children,  the 
murder  of  his  brother,  the  poisoning,  the  incest,  and  other 
crimes.   Of  the  then  Pope,  Julius  II.,  Luther  heard  nothing 
reported,  except  that  he  managed  his  temporal  affau's  with 
energy  and  shrewdness,  made  war,  collected  money,  and 
contracted  and  dissolved,  entered  into  and  broke,  political 
alliances.    At  the  time  of  Luther's  visit,  he  was  just  return- 
ing from  a  campaign  m  which  he  had  conducted  in  person 
the  sanguinary  siege  of  a  town.  Luther  did  not  fail  to  observe 
that  he  had  established  in  the  sacred  city  an  excellent  body 
of  police,  and  that  he  caused  the  streets  to  be  kept  clean,  so 
that  there  was  not  much  pestilence  about.     But  he  looked 
upon  him  simply  as  a  man  of  the  world,  and  afterwards 
fulminated  against  him  as  a  strong  man  of  blood. 

All  these  experiences  at  Borne  did  not,  however,  then 

avail  to  shake  Luther's  faith  in  the  authority  of  the  hierarchy 

\]  which  had  such  unworthy  ministers  ;  though,  later  on,  when 

\  he   was  forced  to  attack  the  Papacy  itself,  they  made   it 

f   easier  for  him  to  shape  his  judgment  and  conclusions.     '  I 


CALL  TO    WITTENBERG.— JOURNEY  TO  ROME.    63 

would  not  have  missed  seeing  Kome,'  he  then  declared,  '  for 
a  hundred  thousand  florins,  for  I  might  then  have  felt 
some  apprehension  that  I  had  done  injustice  to  the  Pope. 
But  as  we  see,  we  speak.' 

During  his  visit  he  also  roamed  about  among  the  ruins 
of  the  ancient  capital  of  the  world,  and  was  astonished  at 
the  remains  of  bygone  worldly  splendour.  The  works  of 
the  new  art  which  Pope  Juhus  was  then  beginning  to  call 
into  existence,  did  not  appear  to  have  particularly  engaged 
his  attention.  The  Pope  was  then  progressing  with  the 
building  of  the  new  Chm-ch  of  St.  Peter.  The  indulgence, 
of  which  the  proceeds  were  to  enable  the  completion  of  this 
vast  undertaking,  led  afterwards  to  the  struggle  between  the 
Augustinian  monk  and  the  Papacy. 


64  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 


CHAPTEE   III. 

LUTHER   AS    THEOLOGICAL    TEACHER,    TO    1517 

On  his  return  to  his  Wittenberg  convent,  Luther  was  made 
sub-prior.  At  the  university  he  entered  fully  upon  all  the 
rights  and  duties  of  a  teacher  of  theology,  having  been 
made  licentiate  and  doctor.  Here  again  it  was  Staupitz, 
his  friend  and  spiritual  superior,  who  urged  this  step  : 
Luther's  own  wish  was  to  leave  the  university  and  devote 
himself  entirely  to  the  office  of  his  Order.  The  Elector 
Frederick,  who  had  been  struck  with  Luther  by  hearing  one 
of  his  sermons,  took  this,  the  first  opportunity,  of  showing 
him  personal  sympathy,  by  offering  to  defray  the  expenses 
of  his  degree.  Luther  was  reluctant  to  accept  this,  and 
years  after  he  was  fond  of  showing  his  friends  a  pear- 
tree  in  the  courtyard  of  the  convent,  under  which  he  dis- 
cussed the  matter  with  Staupitz,  who,  however,  insisted  on 
his  demand.  He  must  have  felt  the  more  sensibly  the 
responsibility  of  his  new  task,  from  his  own  personal 
strivings  after  new  and  true  theological  light.  It  was  a 
satisfaction  to  him  afterwards,  amidst  the  endless  and 
unexpected  labours  and  contests  which  his  vocation  brought 
with  it,  to  reflect  that  he  had  undertaken  it,  not  from  choice, 
but  so  entirely  from  obedience.  '  Had  I  known  what  I  now 
know,'  he  would  exclaim  in  his  later  trials  and  dangers, '  not 
ten  horses  would  ever  have  dragged  me  into  it.' 

After  the  necessary  preliminaries  and  customary  forms, 
he  received  on  October  4,  1512,  the  rights  of  a  licentiate, 
and  on  the  18th  and  19th  was  solemnly  admitted  to  the 
degree  of  doctor.     As  licentiate  he  promised  to  defend  with 


UNIVERSITY' 


LUTHER  AS    THEOLOGICAL    TEACHER.  65 

all  bis  power  the  truth  of  the  gospel,  and  he  must  have 
had  this  oath  particularly  in  his  mind  when  he  afterwards 
appealed  to  the  fact  of  his  having  sworn  on  his  beloved 
Bible  to  preach  it  faithfully  and  in  its  purity.  His  oath  as 
doctor,  which  followed,  bound  him  to  abstain  from  doctrines 
condemned  by  the  Church  and  offensive  to  pious  ears. 
Obedience  to  the  Pope  was  not  required  at  Wittenberg,  as  it 
was  at  other  universities. 

Others,  besides  Staupitz,  expected  from  the  beginning 
something  original  and  remarkable  from  the  new  professor. 
Pollich,  the  first  great  representative  of  Wittenberg  in  its 
early  days,  and  who  died  in  the  following  year,  said  of  him, 
'  This  monk  will  revolutionise  the  whole  system  of  Scholastic 
teaching.'  He  seems,  like  others  whom  we  hear  of  after- 
wards, to  have  been  especially  struck  with  the  depth  of 
Luther's  eyes,  and  thought  that  they  must  reveal  the 
working  of  a  wonderful  mind. 

A  new  theology,  in  fact,  presented  itself  at  once  to 
Luther  in  the  subject  which,  as  doctor,  he  chose  and 
exclusively  adhered  to  in  his  lectures.  This  was  the  Bible, 
the  very  book  of  which  the  study  was  so  generally  under- 
valued in  School-theology,  which  so  many  doctors  of 
theology  scarcely  knew,  and  which  was  usually  so  hastily 
forsaken  for  those  Scholastic  sentences  and  a  corresponding 
exposition  of  ecclesiastical  dogmas. 

Luther  began  with  lectures  upon  the  Psalms.  It  is  his 
first  work  on  theology  which  has  remained  to  posterity. 
We  still  possess  a  Latin  text  of  the  Psalter  furnished  with 
running  notes  for  his  lectures  (a  copy  of  it  is  given  in  these 
pages),  and  also  his  own  manuscript  of  those  lectures  them- 
selves. In  these  also  he  states  that  his  task  was  imposed 
upon  him  by  a  distinct  command :  he  frankly  confessed 
that  as  yet  he  was  insufficiently  acquainted  with  the  Psalms  ; 
a  comparison  of  his  notes  and  lectures  shows  further,  how 
continually  he  was  engaged  in  prosecuting  these  studies. 
His  explanations  indeed  fall  short  of  what  is  required  at 


LUTHER  AS   THEOLOGICAL    TEACHER.  65 

all  bis  power  the  truth  of  the  gospel,  and  he  must  have 
had  this  oath  particularly  in  his  mind  when  he  afterwards 
appealed  to  the  fact  of  his  having  sworn  on  his  beloved 
Bible  to  preach  it  faithfully  and  in  its  purity.  His  oath  as 
doctor,  w^hich  followed,  bound  him  to  abstain  from  doctrine  s 
condemned  by  the  Church  and  offensive  to  pious  ears. 
Obedience  to  the  Pope  was  not  required  at  Wittenberg,  as  it 
was  at  other  universities. 

Others,  besides  Staupitz,  expected  from  the  beginning 
something  original  and  remarkable  from  the  new  professor. 
Pohich,  the  first  great  representative  of  Wittenberg  in  its 
early  days,  and  who  died  in  the  following  year,  said  of  him, 
'  This  monk  will  revolutionise  the  whole  system  of  Scholastic 
teaching.'  He  seems,  like  others  whom  we  hear  of  after- 
wards, to  have  been  especially  struck  with  the  depth  of 
Luther's  eyes,  and  thought  that  they  must  reveal  the 
working  of  a  wonderful  mind. 

A  new  theology,  in  fact,  presented  itself  at  once  to 
Luther  in  the  subject  which,  as  doctor,  he  chose  and 
exclusively  adhered  to  in  his  lectures.  This  was  the  Bible, 
the  very  book  of  which  the  study  was  so  generally  under- 
valued in  School-theology,  which  so  many  doctors  of 
theology  scarcely  knew,  and  which  was  usually  so  hastily 
forsaken  for  those  Scholastic  sentences  and  a  corresponding 
exposition  of  ecclesiastical  dogmas. 

Luther  began  with  lectures  upon  the  Psalms.  It  is  his 
first  work  on  theology  which  has  remained  to  posterity. 
We  still  possess  a  Latin  text  of  the  Psalter  furnished  with 
running  notes  for  his  lectures  (a  copy  of  it  is  given  in  these 
pages),  and  also  his  own  manuscript  of  those  lectures  them- 
selves. In  these  also  he  states  that  his  task  was  imposed 
upon  him  by  a  distinct  command :  he  frankly  confessed 
that  as  yet  he  was  insufficiently  acquainted  with  the  Psalms  ; 
a  comparison  of  his  notes  and  lectures  shows  further,  how 
continually  he  was  engaged  in  prosecuting  these  studies. 
His  explanations  indeed  fall  short  of  what  is  required  at 


66  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 

present,  and  even  of  what  he  himself  required  later  on.  He 
still  follows  wholly  the  mediaeval  practice  of  thinking  it  neces- 
sary to  find,  throughout  the  words  of  the  Psalmist,  pictorial 
allegories  relating  to  Christ,  His  work  of  salvation,  and  His 
people.  But  he  was  thus  enabled  to  propound,  while 
explaining  the  Psalms,  the  fundamental  principles  of  that 
doctrine  of  salvation  which  for  some  years  past  had  taken 
such  hold  on  his  inmost  thoughts  and  so  engrossed  his 
theological  studies.  And  in  addition  to  the  fruits  of  his 
researches  in  Scripture,  especially  in  the  writings  of 
St.  Paul,  we  observe  the  use  he  made  of  the  works  of 
St.  Augustine.  His  acquaintance  with  the  latter  did  not 
commence  until  years  after  he  had  joined  the  Order,  and 
had  acquired  independently  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
Bible.  It  was  mainly  through  them  that  he  was  enabled 
to  comprehend  the  teaching  of  St.  Paul,  and  to  find  how 
the  doctrine  of  Divine  grace,  which  we  have  already 
alluded  to,  was  based  on  Pauline  authority.  Thus  the 
founder  of  the  Order  became,  as  it  were,  his  first  teacher 
among  human  theologians. 

From  his  lectures  on  the  Psalms  Luther  proceeded  a 
few  years  later  to  an  exposition  of  those  Epistles  which 
were  to  him  the  main  source  of  his  new  belief .  in  God's 
mercy  and  justice,  namely,  the  Epistles  to  the  Eomans  and 
the  Galatians. 

In  the  convent  also  at  Wittenberg,  the  direction  of 
the  theological  studies  of  the  brethren  was  entrusted  to 
Luther.  His  fellow-labourer  in  this  field  was  his  friend 
John  Lange,  who  had  been  with  him  also  in  the  convent  at 
Erfurt.  He  was  distinguished  for  a  rare  knowledge  of 
Greek,  and  was  therefore  a  valuable  help  even  to  Luther, 
to  whom  he  was  indebted  in  turn  for  a  prolific  advance  in 
learning  of  another  kind.  Closely  allied  with  Luther  also 
was  Wenzeslaus  Link,  the  prior  of  the  convent,  who  ob- 
tained his  degree  as  doctor  of  the  theological  faculty  a  year 
before  him.     These  men  were  drawn  together  by  similarity 


LUTHER  AS   THEOLOGICAL    TEACHER.  67 

of  ideas,  and  by  a  strong  and  enduring  personal  triend- 
ship ;  they  had  possibly  been  acquainted  at  the  school  at 
Magdeburg.  The  new  life  and  activity  awakened  at  Witten- 
berg attracted  clever  young  monks  more  and  more  from  a 
distance.  The  convent,  not  yet  quite  finished,  had  scarcely 
room  enough  for  them,  or  means  for  their  maintenance. 

When  in  1515  the  associated  convents  had  to  choose  at 
Gotha,  on  a  chapter-day,  their  new  authorities,  Luther  was 
appointed,  Staupitz  being  still  Vicar-General,  the  Provin- 
cial Vicar  for  Meissen  and  Thuringia.  He  obtained  by  this 
office  the  superintendence  of  eleven  convents,  to  which  in 
the  next  year  he  paid  the  customary  visitation.  In  person, 
by  word  of  mouth,  and  equally  by  letters,  we  see  him 
labouring  with  self-sacrificing  zeal  for  the  spiritual  welfare 
of  those  committed  to  his  care,  for  the  correction  of  bad 
monks,  for  the  comfort  of  those  oppressed  with  temptations, 
as  also  for  the  temporal  and  domestic,  and  even  the  legal 
business  of  the  different  convents. 

In  addition  to  his  academical  duties,  he  performed 
double  service  as  a  preacher.  In  the  first  place  he  had  to 
preach  in  his  convent,  as  he  had  already  done  at  Erfurt. 
When  the  new  convent  at  Wittenberg  was  opened,  the 
church  was  not  yet  ready ;  and  in  a  small,  poor,  tumble- 
down chapel  close  by,  made  up  of  wood  and  clay,  he  began 
to  preach  the  gospel  and  unfold  the  power  of  his  eloquence. 
When,  shortly  after,  the  town-priest  of  Wittenberg  became 
weak  and  ailing,  his  congregation  pressed  Luther  to  occupy 
the  pulpit  in  his  place.  He  performed  these  different  duties 
with  alacrity,  energy,  and  power.  He  would  preach  some- 
times daily  for  a  week  together,  sometimes  even  three  times 
in  one  day;  during  Lent  in  1517  he  gave  two  sermons 
every  day  in  addition  to  his  lectures  at  the  university. 
The  zeal  which  he  displayed  in  proclaiming  the  gospel  to 
his  hearers  in  church,  was  quite  as  new  and  peculiar  to 
himself  as  the  lofty  interest  he  imparted  to  his  professorial 
lectures  on  the  Scriptures. 

f2 


68  LUTHER   AS  MONK  AND   PROFESSOR. 

Melancthon  says  of  these  first  lectures  by  Luther  on 
the  Psalms  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  that  after  a 
long  and  dark  night,  a  new  day  was  now  seen  to  dawn  on 
Christian  doctrine.  In  these  lectures  Luther  pointed  out 
the  difference  between  the  law  and  the  gospel.  He  refuted 
the  errors,  then  predominant  in  the  Church  and  schools, 
the  old  teaching  of  the  Pharisees,  that  men  could  earn  for- 
giveness by  their  works,  and  that  mere  outward  penance 
would  justify  them  in  the  sight  of  God.  Luther  called 
men  back  to  the  Son  of  God;  and  just  as  John  the 
Baptist  pointed  to  the  Lamb  of  God  who  bore  our  sins, 
so  Luther  showed  how,  for  his  Son's  sake,  God  in  His 
mercy  will  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  how  we  must  accept 
such  mercy  in  faith. 

In  fact,  the  whole  groundwork  of  that  Christian  faith 
on  which  the  inner  life  of  the  Reformer  rests,  for  which  he 
fought,  and  which  gave  him  strength  and  fresh  courage  for 
the  fight,  lies  already  before  us  in  his  lectures  and  sermons 
during  those  years,  and  increases  in  clearness  and  decision. 
The  '  new  day '  had,  in  reality,  broken  upon  his  eyes. 
That  fundamental  truth  which  he  designated  later  as  the 
article  by  which  a  Christian  Church  must  stand  or  fall, 
stands  here  already  firmly  established,  before  he  in  the  least 
suspects  that  it  would  lead  him  to  separate  from  the  Catholic 
Church,  or  that  his  adopting  it  would  occasion  a  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  Church.  The  primary  question  around  which 
everything  else  centred,  remained  always  this — how  he,  the 
sinful  man,  could  possibly  stand  before  God  and  obtain 
salvation.  With  this  came  the  question  as  to  the  righteous- 
ness of  God  ;  and  now  he  was  no  longer  terrified  by  the 
avenging  justice  of  God,  wherewith  He  threatens  the 
sinner;  but  he  recognised  and  saw  the  meaning  of  that 
righteousness  declared  in  the  gospel  (Rom.  i.  17,  iii.  25), 
by  which  the  merciful  God  justifies  the  faithful,  in  that  He 
of  His  own  grace  re-establishes  them  in  His  sight,  and 
effects  an  inward  change,  and  lets  them  thenceforth,  like 


LUTHER  AS   THEOLOGICAL    TEACHER.  69 

children,  enjoy  His  fatherly  love  and  blessing.  Luther, 
in  teaching  now  that  justification  proceeds  from  faith, 
rejects,  above  all,  the  notion  that  man  by  any  outward  acts 
of  his  own  can  ever  atone  for  his  sins  and  merit  the  favour 
of  God.  He  reminds  us,  moreover,  with  regard  to  moral 
works  especially,  that  good  fruits  always  presuppose  a  good 
tree,  upon  which  alone  they  can  grow,  and  that,  in  like 
manner,  goodness  can  only  proceed  from  a  man,  if  and 
when,  in  his  inward  being,  his  inward  thoughts,  tenden- 
cies, and  feelings,  he  has  already  become  good ;  he  must 
be  righteous  himself,  in  a  word,  before  he  works  righteous- 
ness. But  it  is  faith,  and  faith  alone,  which  in  the  inward 
man  determines  real  communion  with  God.  Then  only, 
and  gradually,  can  a  man's  own  inner  being,  trusting  to 
God,  and  by  means  of  His  imparted  grace,  become  truly 
renovated  and  purged  from  sin.  Had  Luther,  indeed, 
made  salvation  depend  on  such  a  righteousness,  derived 
from  a  man's  own  works,  as  should  satisfy  the  holy  God, 
the  very  consciousness  of  his  own  sins  and  infirmities 
would  have  made  him  despair  of  such  salvation.  Moreover, 
all  the  working  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  His  gifts  in  our 
hearts,  presuppose  that  we  are  already  participators  of  the 
forgiving  mercy  and  grace  of  God,  and  are  received  into 
communion  with  Him.  To  this,  as  Luther  teaches  after 
St.  Paul,  we  can  only  attain  through  faith  in  the  joyful 
message  of  His  mercy,  in  His  compassion,  and  in  His  Son, 
whom  He  has  sent  to  be  our  Eedeemer.  Thus  he  speaks 
of  faith,  even  in  his  earliest  notes  on  the  Psalter,  as  the 
keystone,  the  marrow,  the  short  road.  The  worst  enemy, 
in  his  sight,  is  self-righteousness ;  he  confesses  having  had 
to  combat  it  himself. 

Herein  also  Luther  found  the  theology  of  St.  Augustine 
in  accord  with  the  testimony  of  the  great  Apostle.  While 
studying  that  theology,  his  conviction  of  the  power  of  sin 
and  the  powerlessness  of  man's  own  strength  to  overcome  it, 
grew  more  and  more  decided.     But  St.  Paul  taught  him  to 


70     LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 

understand  that  belief  somewhat  differently  to  St.  Augus- 
tine. To  Luther  it  was  not  merely  a  recognition  of  objec- 
tive truths  or  historical  facts.  What  he  understood  by 
it,  with  a  clearness  and  decision  which  are  wanting  in  St. 
Augustine's  teaching,  was  the  trusting  of  the  heart  in  the 
mercy  offered  by  the  message  of  salvation,  the  personal 
confidence  in  the  Saviour  Christ  and  in  that  which  He  has 
gained  for  us.  With  this  faith,  then,  and  by  the  merits 
and  mediation  of  the  Saviour  in  whom  this  faith  is  placed, 
we  stand  before  God,  we  have  already  the  assurance  of 
being  known  by  God  and  of  being  saved,  and  we  are 
partakers  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  sanctifies  more  and  more 
the  inner  man.  According  to  St.  Augustine,  on  the  con- 
trary, and  to  all  Catholic  theologians  who  followed  his 
teaching,  what  will  help  us  before  God  is  rather  that  in- 
ward righteousness  which  God  Himself  gives  ^to  man  by 
^bK  His  Holy  Spirit  and  the  working^^^isgmce,  or,  as  the 
^  expression  was,  the  righteousness^^^S^ooy  God.  The 
good,  therefore,  already  existing  in  a  Christian  is  so  highly 
^  \  esteemed  that  he  can  thereby  gain  merit  before  the  just 
y\  God  and  even  do  more  than  is  required  of  him.  But 
%**  to  a  conscience  like  Luther's,  which  applied  so  severe  a 
^  standard  to  human  virtue  and  works,  and  took  such  stern 
count  of  past  and  present  sins,  such  a  doctrine  could  bring 
no  assurance  of  forgiveness,  mercy,  and  salvation.  It  was 
in  faith  alone  that  Luther  had  found  this  assurance,  and 
for  it  he  needed  no  merits  of  his  own.  The  happy  spirit 
of  the  child  of  God,  by  its  own  free  impulse,  would  produce  in 
a  Christian  the  genuine  good  fruit  pleasing  in  God's  sight. 
It  was  a  long  time  before  Luther  himself  became  aware 
how  he  differed  on  this  point  from  his  chief  teacher 
amongst  theologians.  But  we  see  the  difference  appear  at 
the  very  root  and  beginning  of  his  new  doctrine  of  salva- 
tion ;  and  it  comes  out  finally,  based  on  apostolic  authority, 
clear  and  sharp,  in  the  theology  of  the  Eeformer. 

And  inseparably  connected  with  this  is  what  Melancthon 


LUTHER  AS   THEOLOGICAL    TEACHER,  yi 

said  about  the  Law  and  the  Gospel.  Luther  himself  always 
declared  in  later  days,  that  the  whole  understanding  of  the 
truth  of  Christian  salvation,  as  revealed  by  God,  depends 
on  a  right  perception  of  the  relation  of  one  to  the  other, 
and  this  very  relation  he  explained,  shortly  before  the 
beginning  of  his  contest  with  the  Church,  upon  the 
authority  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles.  The  Law  is  to  him  the 
epitome  of  God's  demands  with  regard  to  will  and  works, 
which  still  the  sinner  cannot  fulfil.  The  Gospel  is  the 
blessed  offer  and  announcement  of  that  forgiving  mercy  of 
God  which  is  to  be  accepted  in  simple  faith.  By  the  Law 
says  Luther,  the  sinner  is  judged,  condemned,  killed  ;  he 
himself  had  to  toil  and  disquiet  himself  under  it,  as  though 
he  were  in  the  hands  of  a  gaoler  and  executioner.  The 
Gospel  first  lifts  up  those  who  are  crushed,  and  makes 
them  alive  by  the  faith  which  the  good  message  awakens 
in  their  hearts.  But  God  works  in  both  ;  in  the  one,  a 
work  which  to  Him,  the  God  of  love,  would  properly  be 
strange ;  in  the  other,  His  own  work  of  love,  for  which, 
however,  he  has  first  prepared  the  sinner  by  the  former. 

Whilst  Luther  was  prosecuting  his  labours  in  this  path, 
he  became  acquainted  in  1516  with  the  sermons  of  the 
pious,  deep- thinking  theologian  Tauler,  who  died  in  1361 ; 
and  at  the  same  time  an  old  theological  tract,  written  not 
long  after  Tauler,  fell  into  his  hands,  to  which  he  gave  the 
name  of  *  German  Theology.'  Now  for  the  first  time,  and 
in  the  person  of  their  noblest  representatives,  he  was  con- 
fronted with  the  Christian  and  theological  views  which 
were  commonly  designated  as  the  j)ractical  German  mysti- 
cism of  the  middle  ages.  Here,  instead  of  the  value  which 
the  mediaeval  Church,  so  addicted  to  externals,  ascribed  to 
outward  acts  and  ordinances,  he  found  the  most  devout 
absorption  in  the  sentiments  of  real  Christian  religion. 
Instead  of  the  barren,  formal  expositions  and  logical  opera- 
tions of  the  scholastic  intellect,  he  found  a  striving  and 
wrestling  of  the  whole  inner  man,  with  all  the  mind  and 


72  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 

will,  after  direct  communion  and  union  with  God,  who 
Himself  seeks  to  draw  into  this  union  the  soul  devoted  to 
Him,  and  makes  it  hecome  like  to  liimself.  Such  a  depth 
of  contemplation  and  such  fervour  of  a  Christian  mind 
Luther  had  not  found  even  in  an  Augustine.  He  rejoiced 
to  see  this  treasure  written  in  his  native  German,  and  it 
certainly  was  the  nohlest  German  he  had  ever  read.  He 
felt  himself  marvellously  impressed  by  this  theology;  he 
knew  of  no  sermons,  so  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  which  agreed 
more  faithfully  with  the  gospel  than  those  of  Tauler.  He 
published  that  tract — then  not  quite  complete — in  1516, 
and  again  afterwards  in  1518.  It  was  the  first  publication 
from  his  hand.  His  further  sermons  and  writmgs  show 
how  deeply  he  was  imbued  with  its  contents.»  The  in- 
fluences he  here  received  had  a  lasting  effect  on  the  forma- 
tion of  his  inner  life  and  his  theology 

With  regai'd  to  sin,  he  now  learned  that  its  deepest  roots 
and  fundamental  character  lay  in  our  own  wills,  in  self-love 
and  selfishness.  To  enjoy  communion  with  God  it  is  neces- 
sary that  the  heart  should  put  away  all  worldliness,  and  let 
its  natural  will  be  dead,  so  that  God  alone  may  live  and  work 
in  us.  So,  as  he  says  on  the  title-page  of  '  German  Theo- 
logy,' shall  Adam  die  in  us  and  Christ  be  made  alive.  But 
the  essential  peculiarity  of  Luther's  doctrine  of  salvation, 
grounded  as  it  was  dh*ectly  on  Scripture,  still  remained  intact, 
despite  the  theology  no  less  of  the  mystics  than  of  Augustine, 
and,  after  passing  through  these  influences,  developed  its 
full  independence  during  his  struggles  as  a  Eeformer.  For 
this  communion  with  God  he  never  thought  it  necessary,  as 
the  mystics  maintained,  to  renounce  one's  personality  and 
retire  altogether  from  the  world  and  things  temporal :  a 
pm-ely  passive  attitude  towards  God,  and  a  blessedness  con- 
sistmg  in  such  an  attitude,  was  not  his  highest  or  ultimate 
ideal.  A  man's  personality,  he  held,  should  only  be  de- 
stroyed so  far  as  it  resists  the  will  of  God,  and  dares  to 
assert  its  self-righteousness  and  merits  before  Him.     The 


LUTHER  AS   THEOLOGICAL    TEACHER.  73 

road  to  real  conimunion  with  God  was  always  that  *  short 
road '  of  faith,  in  which  the  contrite  sinner,  who  feels  his 
personality  crushed  by  the  consciousness  of  sin,  grasps  the 
hand  of  Divine  mercy,  and  is  lifted  up  by  it  and  restored. 
Christ  was  manifested,  as  the  mystics  said  with  Scripture, 
in  order  that  the  man's  personality  should  die  with  Him, 
and  imitate  Him  in  self-renunciation.  But  the  faith, 
on  which  Luther  insisted,  saw  in  Christ  above  all  the 
Saviour  who  has  died  for  us,  and  who  pleads  for  us  before 
God  with  His  holy  life  and  conduct,  that  the  faithful  may 
obtain  through  Him  reconciliation  and  salvation.  What 
the  Saviour  is  to  us  in  this  respect  Luther  has  thus  sum- 
marised in  words  of  his  own  :  '  Lord  Jesus,'  he  says,  '  Thou 
hast  taken  to  Thyself  what  is  mine,  and  given  to  me  what 
is  Thine.'  The  main  divergence  between  Luther  and  the 
German  mysticism  of  the  middle  ages  consists  primarily 
in  a  different  estimate  of  the  general  relations  between 
God  and  the  moral  personality  of  man.  With  the  mystics, 
behind  the  Christian  and  religious,  lay  a  metaphysical  con- 
ception of  God,  as  a  Being  of  absolute  power,  superior  to  all 
destiny,  apparently  rich  in  attributes,  but  in  reality  an  empty 
Abstraction, — above  all,  a  Being  who  suffers  nothing  finite  to 
exist  in  independence  of  Himself.  With  Luther  the  funda- 
mental conception  of  God  remained  this,  that  He  is  the 
perfect  Good,  and  that,  in  His  perfect  holiness.  He  is  Love. 
This  is  the  God  by  whom  the  sinner  who  has  faith  is  re- 
stored and  justified.  From  this  conception  as  a  starting- 
point,  Luther  acquired  fresh  strength  and  energy  for 
advancing  in  the  fight,  whilst  the  pious  mystic  remained 
passively  and  quietly  behind.  From  this  also  he  learned 
to  realise  Christian  liberty  and  moral  duty  in  regard  to 
daily  life  and  its  vocations,  whilst  the  mystics  remained 
shut  off  altogether  from  the  world.  The  intimate  con- 
nection between  the  conclusions  to  which  the  views  of 
Tauler  tended,  and  the  principles  from  which  Luther 
started,  is  shown  further  by  the  superior  attraction  which 


74  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 

those  sermons,  so  warmly  recommended  by  Luther,  con- 
tinued to  exercise  upon  members  of  the  Evangehcal,  com- 
pared with  those  of  the  Cathohc  Church. 

What  Christ  has  suffered  and  done  for  us,  and  how  we 
gain  through  Him  the  righteousness  of  God,  peace,  and 
real  life, — these  thoughts  of  practical  religion  pervaded 
now  all  Luther's  discourses.  To  the  saving  knowledge  of 
these  facts  he  endeavoured  to  direct  his  lectures,  and 
discarded  the  dogmatical  inquiries  and  subtle  investiga- 
tions and  speculations  of  School-theology.  At  first,  and 
even  in  his  sermons  at  the  convent,  he  had  employed 
in  his  exposition  of  Biblical  truths,  as  w^as  the  custom  of 
learned  preachers,  philosophical  expressions  and  references 
to  Aristotle  and  famous  Scholastics.  But  latterly,  and  at 
the  time  we  are  speaking  of,  he  had  entu'ely  left  this  off; 
and,  as  regards  the  form  of  his  sermons,  instead  of  a  stiff, 
logical  construction  of  sentences,  he  employed  that  simple, 
lively,  powerful  eloquence  which  distinguished  him  above 
all  preachers  of  his  time.  In  1516  and  1517  he  delivered 
a  course  of  sermons  on  the  Ten  Commandments  and  the 
Lord's  Prayer  before  his  town  congregation,  with  the  view 
of  show^ing  the  connection  of  the  truths  of  Christian  re- 
ligion. He  further  had  printed  in  1517,  for  Christian 
readers  generally,  an  explanation  of  the  seven  penitential 
psalms.  He  wished,  as  the  title  stated,  to  expound  them 
thoroughly  in  their  Scriptural  meaning,  for  setting  forth  the 
grace  of  Christ  and  God,  and  enabling  true  self-knowledge. 
It  is  the  first  of  his  writings,  published  by  himself,  and 
in  the  German  language,  which  we  possess;  for  the  later 
lectures  that  were  published  w^ere  delivered  by  him  in 
Latin,  and  the  first  sermons  we  have  of  his  were  also 
written  by  him  in  that  language.  We  give  here  the  title 
cind  preface  from  the  original  print. 

Luther  had  now  become  possessed  with  a  burning  desire 
to  refute,  by  means  of  the  truth  he  had  newly  learned,  the 
teaching  and  system  of  that  School-theology  on  which  he 


LUTHER  AS   THEOLOGICAL    TEACHER.  73 

©ifgfclimp&p&Itötttit 

firutftlttraußlrgunßnarfi 

öfmfriülffrilclimrpniit 

(eyna  felbm.  voaxt  csf  mtnif • 
grart&Iicf?  gerichtet  • 

Sntcn  lubett  glit)m  apm  C^nfH  &ic  t>if 

^rtrtbc  tjtib  fJi'b  1^0«  gott/basö  nit  vmab  wiin&er  f)4ff^^ 
Ifebcrt  frunt>c  d)a|li.t)oit  0cm  tcrt*  örf  crfieben  pfalmeit/ 
]5(l  3U  wif|ett/t)a05.  bcrfdb.yn  edic^m  iJer(ctt*t?  mb  Hcrer 
iJOtflattOs  wtllm/tjßer  Die  gemo^nm  rraneliition/  itad^ 
t>cif  rraslßtton  (aitai  <bieroitvtrii  gcnom«!  i(J/  atid^  Oac 
511  Sc^olffeit  Du  trau0(<»rtOTt  Docco jö  ^O^omiiö  Äewc^^ 
jin  yn  (cv«ter  bcbieifc^cr  fiptcrte» 

J5ic  glopc  aß^  tJiiD  au^legurt^/  tttfc  tvoI/jTc  villeic^S 
Bicro.aDDermid>itfefa>niffdicf>  f^nncs  yttt)altm0/ vott 
eclic^eit/niÄg  angcfc^en  iveröm*  ^att^ö  myr  bocl>  niC 
gc5y  mct.^^  fiy  t)cr  t>ic  ctxriffm  q«  ad^em.aDer^wey  fclcn^ 

^evcaber/btepr4lmmaup3ii!egm  fanOcrlid)  yrf 3  Oeuc^ 
fc^e.befil^  id)  ff  cy/  yittyns  ighqjm  gwtöiirtcf cti  5SI  t?2fcy 
fm/^-iu  nit  ntyr  na,6)  Dyr  fuiiOcm  goceaUeyji  lob  pnri^ 
cac^iKnbe2itnm* 

J.  trramtttti5lLubcr^ngff(ftncr 
QU  Wittenberg* 

Fig.  6.— Title  and  Preface  of  Penitential  Psalms. 


^(>  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND   PROFESSOR. 

himself  had  wasted  so  much  tune  and  labour,  and  by  which 
he  saw  that  same  truth  darkened  and  obstructed.  He  first 
attacked  Aristotle,  the  heathen  philosopher  from  whom  this 
theology,  he  said,  received  its  empty  and  perverted  for- 
malism, whose  system  of  physics  was  worthless,  and  who, 
especially  in  his  conception  of  moral  life  and  moral  good, 
was  blind,  since  he  knew  nothing  of  the  essence  and  ground 
of  true  righteousness.  The  Scholastics,  as  Luther  himself 
remarked  against  them,  had  failed  signally  to  understand 
the  genuine  original  philosophy  of  Aristotle.  But  the  real 
greatness  and  significance  which  must  be  allowed  to  that 
philosophy,  in  the  development  of  human  thought  and 
knowledge,  were  far  removed  from  those  profound  ques- 
tions of  Christian  morality  and  religion  which  engrossed 
Luther's  mind,  and  from  those  truths  to  which  he  again 
had  to  testify.  In  theses  which  formed  the  subject  of  dis- 
putation among  his  followers,  Luther  expressed  with  par- 
ticular acuteness  his  own  doctrine,  and  that  of  Augustine, 
concerning  the  inability  of  man,  and  the  grace  of  God,  and 
his  opposition  to  the  previously  dominant  Schoolmen  and 
their  Aristotle.  He  was  anxious  also  to  hear  the  verdict  of 
others,  particularly  of  his  teacher  Trutvetter,  upon  his  new 
polemics. 

He  already  could  boast  that,  at  Wittenberg,  his,  or  as 
he  called  it,  the  •  Augustinian  theology,  had  found  its  way 
to  victory.  It  was  adopted  by  the  theologians  who  had 
taught  there,  though  wholly  in  the  old  Scholastic  fashion, 
before  him,  especially  by  Carlstadt,  w^ho  soon  strove  to 
outbid  him  in  this  new  direction,  and  who,  later  on,  in 
his  own  zeal  for  reform,  fell  into  disj)utes  with  the  great 
Keformer  himself,  and  also  by  Nicholas  von  Amsdorf,  whom 
we  shall  see  afterwards  at  Luther's  side  as  his  personal 
friend  and  strongest  supporter.  At  Erfurt,  Luther's  former 
convent,  his  friend  and  sympathiser  Lange  was  now  prior, 
having  returned  thither  from  Wittenberg,  where  indeed 
his    former   teachers   could   not    j^et   accommodate   them- 


LUTHER  AS   THEOLOGICAL    TEACHER. 


77 


selves  to  his  new  ways.  Of  great  importance  to  Luther's 
work  and  position  was  his  friendship  with  George  Spalatin 
(properly  Burkardt  of  Spelt),  the  court  preacher  and 
private  secretary  of  the  Elector  Frederick,  a  conscientious, 
clear-minded  theologian,  and  a  man  of  varied  culture  and 
calm,  thoughtful  judgment.  He  was  of  the  same  age  as 
Luther ;  he  had  been  with  him  at  Erfurt  as  a  fellow- 
student,  and  at  Wittenberg  afterwards,  whither  he  came  as 

THE  '' 

•EES 


kiÄ^"^^ 


Fig.  7.— Spalatin.     (From  L.  Cranach's  Portrait.) 

tutor  to  the  prince,  and  had  remained  on  terms  of  in- 
timacy with  him.  To  Luther  he  proved  an  upright,  warm- 
hearted friend,  and  to  the  Elector  a  faithful  and  sagacious 
adviser.  It  was  mainly  due  to  his  influence  that  the 
Elector  showed  such  continued  favour  to  Luther,  marks  of 
which  he  displayed  by  presents,  such  as  that  of  a  piece  of 
richly-wrought  cloth,  which  Luther  thought  almost  too  good 
for  a  monk's  frock.  Spalatin  had  also  been  a  member  of 
that  circle  of  '  poets  '  at  Erfurt ;  he  kept  up  his  connection 


7^  LUTHER  AS  MONK  AND  PROFESSOR. 

mth  them,  and  corresponded  with  Erasmus,  the  head  of  the  . 
Humanists,  and  thus  acted  as  a  medium  of  communication 
for  Luther  in  this  quarter.  Elsewhere  in  Germany  we  find 
the  theology  of  Augustine  or  of  St.  Paul,  as  represented  by 
Luther,  taking  root  first  among  his  friends  at  Nuremberg  ; 
in  1517  W.  Link  came  there  as  prior  of  the  Augustinian 
convent. 

We  have  seen  how  Luther  as  a  student  associated  with 
the  young  Humanists  at  Erlurt,  and  now,  whilst  striving 
farther  on  that  road  of  theology  which  he  had  marked  out 
for  himself,  he  was  still  accessible  to  the  general  interests  of 
learning  as  represented  by  the  Humanistic  movement.  He 
made  the  acquaintance,  at  least  by  letter,  of  the  celebrated 
Mutianus  Kufus  of  Gotha,  whom  those  '  poets  '  honoured 
as  their  famous  master,  and  with  whom  Lange  and  Spalatin 
maintained  a  respectful  intercourse.  When  the  Humanist 
John  Eeuchlin,.  then  the  first  Hebrew  scholar  in  Germany, 
was  declared  a  heretic  by  zealous  theologians  and  monks, 
on  accoimt  of  the  protests  he  raised  against  the  burning  of 
the  Rabbinical  books  of  the  Jews,  and  a  fierce  quarrel  broke 
out  in  consequence,  Luther,  on  being  asked  by  Spalatin  for 
his  opinion,  declared  himself  strongly  for  the  Humanists 
against  those  who,  being  gnats  themselves,  tried  to  swallow 
camels.  His  heart,  he  said,  was  so  full  of  this  matter  that 
his  tongue  could  not  find  utterance .  Still,  the  bold  satire 
with  which  his  former  college  friend  Crotus  and  other 
Humanists  lashed  their  opponents  and  held  them  up  to 
ridicule,  as  in  the  famous  '  Epistolse  Yu'orum  Obscurorum, 
was  not  to  Luther's  taste  at  all.  The  matter  was  to  him 
far  too  serious  for  such  treatment. 

The  first  place  among  the  men  who  revived  the 
knowledge  of  antiquity,  and  strove  to  apply  that  knowledge 
for  the  benefit  of  then*  own  times  and  i)articulari^  of 
theology,  belongs  undoubtedly  to  Erasmus,  from  his  com- 
prehensive learning,  his  refinement  of  mind,  and  his  in- 
defatigable industry.     Just  then,  in  1516,  he  brought  out 


LUTHER  AS    THEOLOGICAL    TEACHER 


79 


a  remarkable  edition  of  the  New  Testament,  with  a  transla- 
tion and  explanatory  comments,  which  forms  in  fact  an 
epoch  in  its  history.  Luther  recognised  his  high  talents  and 
services,  and  was  anxious  to  see  him  exercise  the  influence 


Fig. 


Erasmus.     (From  the  Portrait  by  A.  Dürer.) 


he  deserved.  He  speaks  of  him  in  a  letter  to  Spalatin  as 
*  our  Erasmus.'  But  nevertheless  he  steadily  asserted  his 
own  independence,  and  reserved  the  right  of  free  judgment 
about  him.     Two  things  he  lamented  in  him ;  first  of  all 


8o  LUTHER  AS   MONK  AND   PROFESSOR. 

that  he  lacked,  as  was  the  case,  the  comprehension  of  that 
fundamental  doctrine  of  St.  Paul  as  to  human  sin  and 
righteousness  by  faith  ;  and  further,  that  he  made  even  the 
errors  of  the  Church,  which  should  be  a  source  of  genuine 
sorrow  to  every  Christian,  a  subject  of  ridicule.  He  sought, 
however,  to  keep  his  opinion  of  Erasmus  to  himself,  to 
avoid  giving  occasion  to  his  jealous  and  unscrupulous 
enemies  to  malign  him. 

Bitterness  and  ill-will,  aroused  by  Luther's  words  and 
w^orks,  were  already  not  wanting  among  the  followers  of  the 
hitherto  dominant  views  of  theology  and  the  Church.  But 
of  any  separation  from  the  Church,  her  authority  and  her 
fundamental  forms,  he  had  as  yet  no  intention  or  idea. 
Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  did  his  enemies  take  occasion  to 
obtain  sentence  of  expulsion  against  him,  until  he  found 
himself  forced  to  conclusions  which  threatened  the  power 
and  the  income  of  the  hierarchy. 

As  yet  he  had  not  expressed  or  entertained  a  thought 
against  the  ordinances  w^hich  enslaved  every  Christian  to 
the  priesthood  and  its  power.  He  certainly  showed,  in  his 
new  doctrine  of  salvation,  the  way  which  leads  the  soul,  by 
simple  faith  in  the  message  of  mercy  sent  to  all  alike,  to 
its  God  and  Saviour.  But  he  had  no  idea  of  disputing 
that  everyone  should  confess  to  the  priests,  receive  from 
them  absolution,  and  submit  to  all  the  penances  and  ordi- 
nances ordained  by  the  Church.  And  in  that  very  doctrine 
of  salvation  he  knew  that  he  was  at  one  with  Augustine, 
the  most  eminent  teacher  of  the  Western  Church,  whilst  the 
opposite  views,  however  dominant  in  point  of  fact,  had  never 
yet  received  any  formal  sanction  of  the  Church.  Zealously, 
indeed,  he  soon  exposed  many  practical  abuses  and  errors 
in  the  religious  life  of  the  Church.  But  hitherto  these  w^ere 
only  such  as  had  been  long  before  complained  of  and  com- 
bated by  others,  and  which  the  Church  had  never  expressly 
declared  as  essential  parts  of  her  own  system.  He  gave 
vent  freely  to  his  opinions  about  the  superstitious  worship  of 


LUTHER  AS    THEOLOGICAL    TEACHER.  8i 

saints,  about  absurd  legends,  about  the  heathen  practice  of 
invoking  the  saints  for  temporal  welfare  or  success.  But 
praying  to  the  saints  to  intercede  for  us  with  God  he  still 
justified  against  the  heresy  originating  with  Huss,  and  with 
fervour  he  invoked  the  Virgin  from  the  pulpit.  He  was 
anxious  that  the  priests  and  bishops  should  do  their  duty 
much  better  and  more  conscientiously  than  was  the  case, 
and  that  instead  of  troubling  themselves  about  worldly 
matters,  they  should  care  for  the  good  of  souls,  and  feed 
their  flocks  with  God's  word.  He  saw  in  the  office  of 
bishop,  from  the  difficulties  and  temptations  it  involved,  an 
office  fraught  with  danger,  and  one  therefore  that  he  did 
not  wish  for  his  Staupitz.  But  the  Divine  origin  and 
Divine  right  of  the  hierarchical  offices  of  pope,  bishop,  and 
priest,  and  the  infallibility  of  the  Church,  thus  governed, 
he  held  inviolably  sacred.  The  Hussites  who  broke  from 
her  were  to  him  '  sinful  heretics.'  Nay,  at  that  time  he^ 
used  the  very  argument  by  which  afterwards  the  Komish 
Church  thought  to  crush  the  principles  and  claims  of  the 
Reformation,  namely,  that  if  we  deny  that  power  of  the 
Church  and  Papacy,  any  man  may  equally  say  that  he  is 
filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost ;  everyone  will  claim  to  be  his 
own  master,  and  there  will  be  as  many  Churches  as  heads. 
As  yet  he  was  only  seeking  to  combat  those  abuses 
which  were  outside  the  spirit  and  teaching  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  when  the  scandals  of  the  traffic  in  indulgences 
called  him  to  the  field  of  battle.  And  it  was  only  when  in 
this  battle  the  Pope  and  the  hierarchy  sought  to  rob  him  of 
his  evangelical  doctrine  of  salvation,  and  of  the  joy  and 
comfort  he  derived  from  the  knowledge  of  redemption  by 
Christ,  that,  from  his  stand  on  the  Bible,  he  laid  his  hands 
upon  the  strongholds  of  this  Churchdom. 


32 


PAßT  ni. 

THE  BREACH  WITH  ROME,    UP  TO   THE  DIET   OF 
WORMS.    1517-21. 


CHAPTEE  I. 

THE    NINETY-FIVE    THESES. 


The  first  occasion  for  the  struggle  which  led  to  the  great 
division  in  the  Christian  world  was  given  by  that  magni- 
ficent edifice  of  ecclesiastical  splendour  intended  by  the 
popes  as  the  creation  of  the  new  Italian  art ;  by  the  build- 
ing, in  a  word,  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  which  had  already 
been  commenced  when  Luther  was  at  Eome.  Indulgences 
were  to  furnish  the  necessary  means.  Julius  IL  had  now 
been  succeeded  on  the  Papal  chair  by  Leo  X.  So  far  as 
concerned  the  encouragement  of  the  various  arts,  the 
revival  of  ancient  learning,  and  the  opening  up,  by  that 
means,  to  the  cultivated  and  upper  classes  of  society  of  a 
spring  of  rich  intellectual  enjoyment,  Leo  would  have  been 
just  the  man  for  the  new  age.  But  whilst  actively  engaged 
in  these  pursuits  and  pleasures,  he  remained  indifferent  to 
the  care  and  the  spiritual  welfare  of  his  flock,  whom  as 
Christ's  vicar  he  had  undertaken  to  feed.  The  frivolous 
tone  of  morals  that  ruled  at  the .  Papal  see  was  looked 
upon  as  an  element  of  the  new  culture.  As  regards  the 
Christian  faith,  a  blasphemous  saying  is  reported  of  Leo, 
how  profitable  had  been  the  fable  of  Christ.  He  had  no 
scruples  in  procuring  money  for  the  new  chm-ch,  which,  as 


THE  NINETY-FIVE    THESES. 


83 


he  said,  was  to  protect  and  glorify  the  bones  of  the  holy 
Apostles,  by  a  dirty  traffic,  pernicious  .to  the  soul.  Mean- 
while, the  popes  were  not  ashamed  to  appropriate  freely  to 
their  own  needs  that  indulgence  money,  which  was  nomin- 
ally for  the  Church  and  for  other  objects,  such  as  the  war 
against  the  Turks. 

In  order  to  appreciate  the  nature  of  these  indulgences 
and  of  Luther's  attack  upon  them,  it  is  necessary  first  to 
realise  more  exactly  the  significance  which  the  teachers  of 
the  Church  ascribed  to  them.  The  sim^^le  statement  that 
absolution  or  forgiveness 
of  sins  was  sold  for 
money,  must  in  itself  be 
offence  enough  to  any 
moral  Christian  con- 
science ;  and  we  can  only 
wonder  that  Luther  pro- 
ceeded so  prudently  and 
gradually  towards  his  ob- 
ject of  getting  rid  of  in- 
dulgences altogether.  But 
the  arguments  by  which 
they,  were  explained  and 
justified  did  not  sound 
so  simple  or  concise. 
Forgiveness  of  sins,  it  was 
maintained,  must  be  gained  by  penance,  namely,  by  the  so- 
called  sacrament  of  penance,  including  the  acts  of  private  con- 
fession and  priestly  absolution.  In  this  the  father-confessor 
promised  to  him  who  had  confessed  his  sins,  absolution  for 
them,  whereby  his  guilt  was  forgiven  and  he  was  freed  from 
eternal  punishment.  A  certain  contrition  of  the  heart  was 
required  from  him,  even  if  only  imperfect,  and  proceeding 
perhaps  solely  from  the  fear  of  punishment,  but  which  never- 
theless was  deemed  sufficient,  its  imperfection  being  sup- 
plied by  the  sacrament.  But  though  absolved,  he  had  still  to 

a  2 


Fm.  9.— Leo  X. 
(From  his  Portrait  by  Eaphael.) 


84  THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

discharge  heavy  burdens  of  temporal  punishment,  penances 
imposed  by  the  Church,  and  chastisements  which,  in  the  re- 
mission of  eternal  punishment,  God  in  His  righteousness  still 
laid  upon  him.  If  he  failed  to  satisfy  these  penances  in  this 
Hfe,  he  must,  even  if  no  longer  in  danger  of  hell,  atone  for 
the  rest  in  the  torments  of  the  fire  of  purgatory.  The  indul- 
gence now  came  in  to  relieve  him.  The  Church  was  content 
with  easier  tasks,  as,  at  that  time,  with  a  donation  to  the 
sacred  edifice  at  Kome.  And  even  this  was  made  to  rest  on 
a  certain  basis  of  right.  The  Church,  it  was  said,  had  to 
dispose  of  a  treasure  of  merits  which  Christ  and  the  saints, 
by  their  good  works,  had  accumulated  before  the  righteous 
God,  and  those  riches  were  now  to  be  so  disposed  of  by 
Christ's  representatives,  that  they  should  benefit  the  buyer 
of  indulgences.  In  this  manner  penances  which  otherwise 
would  have  to  be  endured  for  years  were  commuted  into 
small  donations  of  money,  quickly  paid  off.  The  contrition 
required  for  the  forgiveness  of  sins  was  not  altogether 
ignored ;  as,  for  mstance,  in  the  official  announcements  of 
indulgences,  and  in  the  letters  or  certificates  granting 
indulgences  to  individuals  in  return  for  payment.  But  in 
those  documents,  as  also  in  the  sermons  exhorting  the 
multitude  to  purchase,  the  chief  stress,  so  far  as  possible, 
was  laid  upon  the  payment.  The  confession,  and  with  it 
the  contrition,  was  also  mentioned,  but  nothing  was  said 
about  the  personal  remission  of  sins  depending  on  this 
rather  than  on  the  money.  Perfect  forgiveness  of  sins  was 
announced  to  him  who,  after  having  confessed  and  felt 
contrition,  had  thrown  his  contribution  into  the  box.  For 
the  souls  in  purgatory  nothing  was  required  but  money 
offered  for  them  by  the  living.  '  The  moment  the  money 
tinkles  in  the  box,  the  soul  springs  up  out  of  purgatory.'  A 
special  tariff  was  arranged  for  the  commission  of  particular 
sins,  as,  for  example,  six  ducats  for  adultery.     ^ 

The  traffic  in  indulgences  for  the  building  of  St.  Peter's 
was  delegated  by  commission  from  the  Pope,  over  a  large 


ie  Äpföjpaf  wbeta.Ö.D.'rt.dilo  tco 
»ftopbojo  dt  foTtinioiümU  fcrt  <0ari« 
i:  fpßaeindulffcntic  Comtfläfio  i  p:c^ 
»US  ad  pnwn  anmm:  t  ddnde  ad  bnpto 
^(icacit8  eiofdem  ttnno  Outnco. 

•  &  depurat  fiiprt  exequurioe  <t"Ä<  bulks  ymdifiiniUTO  in 
gmifläriumprindpalemcfi  plenimdinepotefiads/^nn 

i 

edf  rc  jtfe  ab  ipfis  coftituto/<j>ucff  pcftit<ntc«/&  confefli 

tandisofferftfs  iujrta  ipfnisCömiffarii  &  fubdeiepnöop 

I 

«f/aut  rubdelegandorutn/confcqui  poffuntomncs.iniiil 

In:  in  fubfidiu  ipfius  ftf^rice  fatiiH  Petriauxta  ipfius  Co/ 
jiifeflbrf m/pi^m  feailaf«*n/ucl  cuiufuis  ordinis/cdä  mc/ 
oiietnadiinaeionisin  perfonam  fummi  pontificis/  i  nie/ 
>ßolicaf«Debtiont5  armop?:  ^  aliop/  ^bibito^t  ad  pai  te$ 
r/tctiensquotiemid  pedmnt/abfoluare/Ä  in  moms  aid 

tcfdidt  mcurfis:*  qua^?  abfo!iitJO  diftc  fedi  effer  refew^ 
jfamentS  minifaarc  t  Etil ifi  die  Parchatis:&  in  morti« 


Dm  m  u  n  I  cati.on . 


nc.ae.nomrcr create i  emanate:  3lc «ß^ndUfimo in )cpopatndno  Cbuflopbc»ode^:liaio:tituUfcteÄ5an« 
m  3[raceU  pbfo  erardinali : Hc  tonus  oidinis  <0ino^ yöiniftro  generali:  fpfioö  indulffentie  ^omiffario  n  ej:e/ 
TfUtto  56iille .    qmiton  piinctpali  inflitatotcum  nönulUö  Umicattontbosrac  ejctefionibus  9d  rnum  annum:  ^  deinde  ad  bnpU 
ätum;cöccire.:annodn<.45,o.pii,©icpero.]rim.9eptembM0.£tDön'ficaraöeinfdcm3lnnoQum 


'Ändiflimus  Cat. 
AraecIieftComifla/ 
riUfgfialisbulte. 
Dctfuhingctiaplcna/ 


De  ßarfonibus  urbis 

SCexax. 

De  confeflionalfbus, 

De  Confeflbris  eledi 

ptite&deafibusab/ 

lohiendis. 

De  afibiu  teferoati's 

Pap«. 

De  ^iblutioe  exeStt 

fttnteididi 


ANCTISSrMvS  DAS nofrer dominus  Lcodiuina  proui<l«nfia  Papa-X-inflituif  &  deputat fuprt  exfquurioc diÄe bullcj yndiffimuro m 
)(fopatrem}dj5mChr!ftoforumdeForlfuiopredi<fhjm:ExfquutoKm  Nücium»  Cömifiärium  prindpalcm"  cö  pJcnitudinepottflatu/caum 
8c  ßngulo^;  in  pre£ita  bulla/cotcnto^f.'Quoium  hec  fumma  ef!/ßf  comprndiutn.  .  »,<•«■ 

C"  Primo  ipfe  Nundus  «fComitrarius  8c  eius  fubdelegati/fi:  deputati/poffunt  mmeien  ;t§e  ab  ipfis  c6flituto/<5ruere  penitent«/«  '^^^^ 
uodeeun«8  uenietcs,  Ecclefiaj  ab  ipfis  deputandas  uifitantes/&  in  rapfis  ad  boc  depurandisoffetitfs  iujrta  ipfiusComiffarii  &  fubdeleganoo^r 
aibitnum  pleflilTimam  omnium  peccato^r  fuojfremiflionem  cofequantur.  .    ,  , 

C'ItemuJfitantes  quafdam  ecdefias/iuxta  ordinationem  Cömiflarii  uel  fubdeleg ato^r/aut  fubdefcgandorum/conrequi  poffuntomnes.indJö- 
gentias  Stationum  qiiadragc/imalium  /&  totius  anni/quc  funt  in  ec defiis/tam  intra/«!  extra  utbem.  .  -        , 

CTtem  diausCöminirius»  ems  fubdelegatiipofluntdarc  Confeflionalia  porrigentibusclemonnam;  in  fubfidiü  ipüus  Fabriee  TanOi  Petriäuxta  ?P"";  <-o' 
miflärii/ucl  eius  fubdclcgato^i  ordinationcm'Uirtute  quo^r  coneeditur/ut  idoneum  poffmt efigete  Coufcflbrem/pbrm  feculareni/uel  cuiufuis  ordinis^era  me/ 
dicantium  regulärem  qui eos a quibufoin^'  dcb<!Hs/fenfentiis/af  fenfurisecdefiaftid$(Pretefq  oceafionemachinationisin  perfonam  futnmi  pontificw/ 1  me/ 
flionis  manuum  uiolentarum  in  E^/autaKojfuperiores  Prelate«/ Falfffiationis  bulla?«  &HteBWfapoftolia9«Delationis  atnio9r:  8C  alio9/  phibito?!  ad  parte« 
inßdelium/Ac  aluminis  TulpheCamerc  ApoftoHce/incutfis)femelinuita.Etin  n6rercruatisöifibu{/tctiensquottensidpetierint/abroluere/&»nn3omsaiö 
eulo  plenariam  indulgcntiam  concedere  potcrit, 

Cl  re  pfit  afafoluere  a  cerurisecHaßidsjefia  ab  hole  ad  alicuius  inftatiä  latis  de  cofenru  paitiii  et  roncinCerdidf  ineurfistfc  qua??  abfolutio  diÄe  fedi  effet  refenj«»» 
C"l tcm  eonccderc polTunt  if  confirflbr  eligendusrpoflitomni  tempore anni eJegcnti.'Euchariftie facramentu  miniftrare ;  Etiiin  die  Pafthatis t8c  in moro« 
arttculoifine  tarnen  Re<Soris  8c  proprii  «rati  preiudicio. 


iRonmoücatwfnh  pena  qx5nnmtoit(on(9« 


the   prohibition  to 


THE  NINETY-FIVE    THESES.  85 

part  of  Germany,  to  Albert,  Archbishop  of  Mayence  and 
Magdeburg.  We  shall  meet  with  this  great  prince  of  the 
Church,  as  now  in  connection  with  the  origin  of  the  Ee- 
formation,  so  during  its  subsequent  course.  Albert,  the 
brother  of  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  and  cousin  of  the 
Grand-Master  of  the  Teutonic  Order  in  Prussia,  stood  in 


Fig.  10.—  The  Archbishop  Albert.     {From  Dürer's  engraving.) 

1517,  though  only  twenty- seven  years  old,  already  at  the 
head  of  those  two  great  ecclesiastical  province's  of  Germany ; 
Wittenberg  also  belonged  to  his  Magdeburg  diocese.  Eaised 
to  such  an  eminence  and  so  rapidly  by  good  fortune,  he  was 
filled  with  ambitious  thoughts.  He  troubled  himself  little 
abou.t  theology.     He  loved  to  shine  as  the  friend  of  the  new 


86  THE   BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

Humanistic  learning,  especially  of  an  Erasmus,  and  as 
patron  of  the  fine  arts,  particularly  of  architecture,  and  to 
keep  a  court  the  splendour  of  which  might  correspond  with 
his  own  dignity  and  love  of  art.  For  this  his  means  were 
inadequate,  especially  as,  on  entering  upon  his  Archbishopric 
of  Mayence,  he  had  had  to  pay,  as  was  customary,  a  heavy 
sum  to  the  Pope  for  the  pallium  given  for  the  occasion. 
For  this  he  had  been  forced  to  borrow  thirty  thousand 
gulden  from  the  house  of  Fugger  at  Augsburg,  and  he  found 
his  aspirations  incessantly  crippled  by  want  of  money  and 
by  debts.  He  succeeded  at  last  in  striking  a  bargain  with 
the  Pope,  by  which  he  was  allow^ed  to  keep  half  of  the 
profits  arising  from  the  sale  of  indulgences,  in  order  to 
repay  the  Fuggers  theh'  loan.  Behind  the  preacher  of 
indulgences,  who  announced  God's  mercy  to  the  paying 
believers,  stood  the  agents  of  that  commercial  house,  who 
collected  their  share  for  their  principals.  The  Dominican 
monk,  John  Tetzel,  a  profligate  man,  whom  the  Archbishop 
had  appointed  his  sub-commissioner,  drove  the  largest  trade 
in  this  business  with  an  audacity  and  a  power  of  popular 
declamation  well  suited  to  his  work. 

Contemporaries  have  described  the  lofty  and  well- 
ordered  pomp  with  which  such  a  commissioner  entered  on 
the  performance  of  his  exalted  duties.  Priests,  monks,  and 
magistrates,  schoolmasters  and  scholars,  men,  women,  and 
children,  went  forth  in  procession  to  meet  him,  with  songs 
and  ringing  of  bells,  with  flags  and  torches.  They  entered 
the  church  together  amidst  the  pealing  of  the  organ.  In 
the  middle  of  the  church,  before  the  altar,  was  erected  a 
large  red  cross,  hung  with  a  silken  banner  which  bore  the 
Papal  arms.  Before  the  cross  was  placed  a  large  iron 
chest  to  receive  the  money ;  specimens  of  these  chests  are 
still  shown  in  many  places.  Daily,  by  sermons,  hymns, 
processions  round  the  cross,  and  other  means  of  attraction, 
the  people  were  invited  and  urged  to  embrace  this  incom- 
parable offer  of  salvation.     It  was  arranged  that  auricular 


THE  NINETY-FIVE    THESES. 


87 


^fegnma«  wolfdig  tper5>en  ^t€ 


Fig.  11.  -  Title-page  of  a  Pamphlet  written  at  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation, 
with  an  Illustration  showing  the  Sale  of  Indulgences. 


88  THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

confession  should  be  taken  wholesale.  The  main  object 
was  the  payment,  in  return  for  which  the  '  contrite  '  sinners 
received  a  letter  of  indulgence  from  the  commissioner,  who, 
with  a  significant  reference  to  the  absolute  power  granted 
to  himself,  promised  them  complete  absolution  and  ^he  good 
opinion  of  their  fellow-men. 

We  have  evidence  to  show  how  Tetzel  preached  himself, 
and  what  he  wished  these  sermons  on  indulgences  to  be 
like.  Calling  upon  the  people,  he  summoned  all,  and 
especially  the  great  sinners,  such  as  murderers  and  robbers, 
to  turn  to  their  God  and  receive  the  medicine  which  God, 
in  his  mercy  and  wisdom,  had  provided  for  their  benefit. 
St.  Stephen  once  had  given  up  his  body  to  be  stoned,  St. 
Lawrence  his  to  be  roasted,  St.  Bartholomew  his  to  a  fear- 
ful death.  Would  they  not  willingly  sacrifice  a  little  gift  in 
order  to  obtain  everlastmg  life  ?  Of  the  souls  in  purgatory 
it  was  said,  *  They,  your  parents  and  relatives,  are  crying 
out  to  you,  "We  are  in  the  bitterest  torments,  you  could 
deliver  us  by  giving  a  small  alms,  and  yet  you  will  not.  We 
have  given  you  birth,  nourished  you,  and  left  to  you  our 
temporal  goods ;  and  such  is  your  cruelty  that  you,  who 
might  so  easily  make  us  free,  leave  us  here  to  lie  in  the 
flames." ' 

To  all  who  directly  or  indirectly,  in  public  or  in  private, 
should  in  any  way  depreciate,  or  murmur  against,  or  obstruct 
these  indulgences,  it  was  announced  that,  by  Papal  edict, 
they  lay  already  by  so  doing  under  the  ban  of  excommuni- 
cation, and  could  only  be  absolved  by  the  Pope  or  by  one 
of  his  commissioners. 

After  Luther  had  once  ventured  to  attack  openly  this 
sale  of  indulgences,  it  was  admitted  even  by  their  defenders 
and  the  violent  enemies  of  the  Reformer,  that  in  those 
days  '  greedy  commissioners,  monks  and  priests,  had 
preached  unblushingly  about  indulgences,  arid  had  laid 
more  stress  upon  the  money  than  upon  confession,  re- 
pentance, and  sorrow.'     Christian  people  were  shocked  and 


THE   NINETY-FIVE    THESES.  89 

scandalised  at  the  abase.  It  was  asked  whether  indeed 
God  so  loved  the  money,  that  for  the  sake  of  a  few  i)ence 
He  would  leave  a  soul  in  everlasting  torments,  or  why  the 
Pope  did  not  out  of  love  empty  the  whole  of  purgatory, 
since  he  was  willing  to  free  innumerable  souls  in  return  for 
such  a  trifle  as  a  contribution  to  the  building  of  a  church. 
But  not  one  of  them  found  it  then  expedient  to  incur  the 
abuse  and  slander  of  a  Tetzel  by  a  word  spoken  openly 
against  the  gross  misconduct  the  fruits  of  which  were  so 
important  to  the  Pope  and  the  Archbishop. 

Tetzel  now  came  to  the  borders  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony's 
dominion,  and  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Wittenberg.  The 
Elector  would  not  allow  him  to  enter  his  territory,  on 
account  of  so  much  money  being  taken  away,  and  accord- 
ingly he  opened  his  trade  at  Jüterbok.  Among  those  who 
confessed  to  Luther,  there  were  some  who  appealed  to 
letters  of  indulgence  which  they  had  purchased  from  him 
there. 

In  a  sermon  preached  as  early  as  the  summer  of  1516, 
Luther  had  warned  his  congregation  against  trusting  to 
indulgences,  and  he  did  not  conceal  his  aversion  to  the 
system,  whilst  admitting  his  doubts  and  ignorance  as  to 
some  important  questions  on  the  subject.  He  knew  that 
these  opinions  and  objections  would  grieve  the  heart  of  his 
sovereign ;  for  Frederick,  who  with  all  his  sincere  piety, 
still  shared  the  exaggerated  veneration  of  the  middle  ages 
for  relics,  and  had  formed  a  rich  collection  of  them  in  the 
Church  of  the  Castle  and  Convent  at  Wittenberg,  which  he 
was  always  endeavouring  to  enrich,  rejoiced  at  the  Pope's 
lavish  offer  of  indulge.nces  to  all  who  at  an  annual  exhibition 
of  these  sacred  trewftires  should  pay  their  devotions  at  the 
nineteen  altars  of  this  church.  A  few  years  before  he  had 
caused  a  '  Book  of  Eelics '  to  be  printed,  which  enumerated 
upwards  of  five  thousand  different  specimens,  and  showed 
how  they  represented  half  a  million  days  of  indulgence. 
Luther  relates  how  he  had  incurred  the  Elector's  displeasure 


90 


THE   BREACH   WITH  ROME. 


by  a  sermon  preached  in  his  Castle  Church  against  indul- 
gences :  he  preached,  however,  again  before  the  exhibition 


Fig.    12.— The  Castle   Church.      (From  the  Wittenberg  Book  of  Eelics, 
1509 :  the  hill  in  the  background  is  an  addition  by  the  artist.) 

held  in  February  1517.     The  honour  and  interest,  more- 
over, of  his  university  had  to  be  considered,  for  that  church 


THE   NINETY  FIVE    THESES.  91 

was  attached  to  it,  the  professors  were  also  dignitaries  of 
the  convent,  and  the  university  benefited  by  the  revenues  of 
the  foundation. 

Luther  was  then,  as  he  afterwards  described  himself,  a 
young  doctor  of  divinity,  ardent,  and  fresh  from  the  forge. 
He  was  burning  to  protest  against  the  scandal.  But  as  yet 
he  restrained  himself  and  kept  quiet.  He  wrote,  indeed, 
on  the  subject  to  some  of  the  bishops.  Some  listened  to 
him  graciously ;  others  laughed  at  him ;  none  wished  to 
take  any  steps  in  the  matter. 

He  longed  now  to  make  known  to  theologians  and  eccle- 
siastics generally  his  thoughts  about  indulgences,  his  own 
principles,  his  own  opinions  and  doubts,  to  excite  public 
discussion  on  the  subject,  and  to  awake  and  maintain  the 
fray.  This  he  did  by  the  ninety- five  Latin  theses  or  pro- 
positions which  he  posted  on  the  doors  of  the  Castle  Church 
at  Wittenberg,  on  October  31,  1517,  the  eve  of  All  Saints' 
Day  and  of  the  anniversary  of  the  consecration  of  the 
Church. 

These  theses  were  intended  as  a  challenge  for  disputa- 
tion. Such  public  disputations  were  then  very  common  at 
the  universities  and  among  theologians,  and  they  were 
meant  to  serve  as  means  not  only  of  exercising  learned 
thought,  but  of  elucidating  the  truth.  Luther  headed  his 
theses  as  follows  : — 

*  Disputation  to  explain  the  virtue  of  indulgences. — In 
charity  and  in  the  endeavour  to  bring  the  truth  to  Hght,  a 
disputation  on  the  following  propositions  will  be  held  at 
Wittenberg,  presided  over  by  the  Keverend  Father  Martin 
Luther  .  .  .  Those  v/ho  are  unable  to  attend  personally 
may  discuss  the  question  with  us  by  letter.  In  the  name  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.     Amen.' 

It  was  in  accordance  with  the  general  custom  of  that 
time  that,  on  the  occasion  of  a  high  festival,  particular 
acts  and  announcements,  and  likewise  disputations  at  a 


92  THE   BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

university,   were  arranged,   and  the  doors  of  a  collegiate 
church  were  used  for  posting  such  notices. 

The  contents  of  these  theses  show  that  their  author 
really  had  such  a  disputation  in  view.  He  was  resolved  to 
defend  with  all  his  might  certain  fundamental  truths  to 
which  he  firmly  adhered.  Some  points  he  considered  still 
within  the  region  of  dispute ;  it  was  his  wish  and  object  to 
make  these  clear  to  hunself  by  arguing  about  them  with 
others. 

Eecognising  the  connection  between  the  system  of  in- 
dulgences and  the  view  of  penance  entertained  by  the 
Church,  he  starts  with  considering  the  nature  of  true 
Christian  repentance ;  but  he  would  have  this  understood 
in  the  sense  and  spirit  taught  by  Christ  and  the  Scriptures, 
as,  indeed,  Staupitz  had  first  taught  it  to  him.  He  begins 
with  the  thesis  *  Our  Lord  and  Master  Jesus  Christ,  when 
He  says  Eepent,  desires  that  the  whole  life  of  the  believer 
should  be  one  of  repentance.'  He  means,  as  the  subsequent 
theses  express  it,  that  true  inward  repentance,  that  sorrow 
for  sin  and  hatred  of  one's  own  sinful  self,  from  which 
must  proceed  good  works  and  mortification  of  the  sinful 
flesh.  The  Pope  could  only  remit  his  sin  to  the  penitent 
so  far  as  to  declare  that  God  had  forgiven  it. 

•  Thus  then  the  theses  expressly  declare  that  God  forgives 
no  man  his  sin  without  making  him  submit  himself  in 
humility  to  the  priest  who  represents  Him,  and  that  He 
recognises  the  punishments  enjoined  by  the  Church  in  her 
outward  sacrament  of  penance.  But  Luther's  leading 
priiiciples  are  consistently  opposed  to  the  customary  an- 
nouncements of  indulgences  by  the  Church.  The  Pope,  he 
holds,  can  only  grant  indulgences  for  what  the  Pope  -and 
the  law  of  the  Church  have  imposed ;  nay,  the  Pope  him- 
self means  absolution  from  these  obligations  only,  when  he 
promises  absolution  from  all  punishment.  And  it  is  only 
the  living  against  whom  those  punishments  are  directed 
which  the  Church's  discipline  of  penance  enjoins :  nothing, 


THE  NINETY-FIVE    THESES. 


93 


according  to  her  own  laws,  can  be  imposed  upon  those  in 
another  world. 

Further  on,  Luther  declares,  '  When  true  repentance  is 
awakened  in  a  man,  full  absolution  from  punishment  and 
sin  comes  to  him  without  any  letters  of  indulgence.'  At 
the  same  time  he  says  that  such  a  man  would  willingly 
undergo  self-imposed  chastisement,  nay,  he  would  even 
seek  and  love  it. 

Still,  it  is  not  the  indulgences  themselves,  if  understood 
in  the  right  sense,  that  he  wishes  to  be  attacked,  but  the 
loose  babble  of  those  who  sold  them.  Blessed,  he  says,  be 
he  who  protests  against  this,  but  cursed  be  he  who  speaks 
against  the  truth  of  apostolic  indulgences.  He  finds  it 
difficult,  however,  to  praise  these  to  the  people,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  teach  them  the  true  repentance  of  the  heart. 
He  would  have  them  even  taught  that  a  Christian  would  do 
better  by  giving  money  to  the  poor  than  by  spending  it  in 
buying  mdulgences,  and  that  he  who  allows  a  poor  man  near 
him  to  starve  draws  down  on  himself,  not  indulgences,  but 
the  wrath  of  God.  In  sharp  and  scornful  language  he 
denounces  the  iniquitous  trader  in  indulgences,  and  gives 
the  Pope  credit  for  the  same  abhorrence  for  the  traffic  that 
he  felt  himself.  Christians  must  be  told,  he  says,  that  if 
the  Pope  only  knew  of  it,  he  would  rather  see  St.  Peter's 
Church  in  ashes,  than  have  it  built  with  the  flesh  and  bones 
of  his  sheep. 

Agreeably  with  what  the  preceding  theses  had  said 
about  the  true  penitent's  earnestness  and  willingness  to 
suffer,  and  the  temptation  offered  to  a  mere  carnal  sense  of 
security,  Luther  concludes  as  follows :  *  Away  therefore 
with  all  those  prophets  who  say  to  Christ's  people  "  Peace, 
peace !  "  when  there  is  no  peace,  but  welcome  to  all  those 
who  bid  them  seek  the  Cross  of  Christ,  not  the  Cross  which 
bears  the  Papal  arms.  Christians  must  be  admonished 
to  follow  Christ  their  Master  through  torture,  death,  and 
hell,  and  thus  through  much  tribulation,  rather  than  by  a 


94  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

carnal  feeling  of  false  security,  hope  to  enter  the  kingdom 
of  heaven. 

The  Catholics  objected  to  this  doctrme  of  salvation 
advanced  by  Luther,  that  by  trusting  to  God's  free  mercy 
and  by  undervaluing  good  works,  it  led  to  moral  indolence. 
But  on  the  contrary,  it  was  to  the  very  unbending  moral 
earnestness  of  a  Christian  conscience,  which,  indignant  at 
the  temptations  offered  to  moral  frivolity,  to  a  deceitful 
feeling  of  ease  in  respect  to  sm  and  guilt,  and  to  a  con- 
tempt of  the  fruits  of  true  morality,  rebelled  against  the 
false  value  attached  to  this  indulgence  money,  that  these 
Theses,  the  germ,  so  to  speak,  of  the  Eeformation,  owed 
their  origin  and  prosecution.  With  the  same  earnestness 
he  now  for  the  first  time  publicly  attacked  the  ecclesiastical 
power  of  the  Papacy,  in  so  far  namely  as,  in  his  conviction, 
it  invaded  the  territory  reserved  to  Himself  by  the  Heavenly 
Lord  and  Judge.  This  was  what  the  Pope  and  his  theolo- 
gians and  ecclesiastics  could  least  of  all  endure. 

On  the  same  day  that  these  theses  were  published, 
Luther  sent  a  copy  of  them  with  a  letter  to  the  Archbishop 
Albert,  his  'revered  and  gracious  Lord  and  Shepherd  in 
Christ.'  After  a  humble  introduction,  he  begged  him 
most  earnestly  to  prevent  the  scandalising  and  iniquitous 
harangues  with  which  his  agents  hawked  about  their  in- 
dulgences, and  reminded  him  that  he  would  have  to  give  an 
account  of  the  souls  entrusted  to  his  episcopal  care. 

The  next  day  he  addressed  himself  to  the  people  from 
the  pulpit,  in  a  sermon  he  had  to  preach  on  the  festival  of 
All  Saints.  After  exhorting  them  to  seek  their  salvation  in 
God  and  Christ  alone,  and  to  let  the  consecration  by  the 
Church  become  a  real  consecration  of  the  heart,  he  went 
on  to  tell  them  plainly,  with  regard  to  indulgences,  that  he 
could  only  absolve  from  duties  imposed  by  the  Church,  and 
that  they  dare  not  rely  on  him  for  more,  nor  delay  on  his 
account  the  duties  of  true  repentance. 


UNIVERSITY^ 

CHAPTER  IL 

THE    CONTKOVERSY   CONCERNING    INDULGENCES. 

Anyone  who  has   heard   that  the  great  movement  of  the 
Reformation  in  Germany,  and  with  it  the  founding  of  the 
EvangeHcal  Chm^ch,  originated  in  the  ninety-live  theses  of 
Luther,  and  who  then  reads  these  theses  through,  might 
perhajDs  be  surprised  at  the  importance  of  their  results. 
They  referred,  in  the  first  place,  to  only  one  particular  point 
of  Christian  doctrine,  not  at  all  to  the  general  fundamenta 
question  as  to  how  sinners  could  obtain  forgiveness  and  b( 
saved,  but  merely  to  the  remission  of  punishments  connectec 
with   penance.      They   contained   no   positive   declaratior 
against  the  most  essential  elements  of  the  Catholic  theory 
of  penance,  or  against  the  necessity  of  oral  confession,  oi 
of  priestly  absolution,  and  such  subjects  ;  they  presupposed, 
in  fact,  the  existence  of  a  purgatory.     Much  of  what  they 
attacked,  not  one  of  the  learned  theologians  of  the  middle 
ages  or  of  those  times  had  ever  ventured  to  assert ;  as,  for 
instance,  the  notion  that  indulgences  made  the  remission  of 
sins  to  the  individual  complete  on  the  part  of  God.     More- 
over, the  ruling  principles  of  the  theology  of  the  day,  whicl 
defended  the  system  of  indulgences,  though  resting  mainly  or 
the  authority  of  the  great  Scholastic  teacher  Thomas  Aquinas 
were  not  adopted  by  other  Scholastics,  and  had  never  beer 
erected  into  a  dogma  by  any  decree  of  the  Church.     Theo- 
logians before  Luther,  and  with  far  more  acuteness  and 
penetration    than    he    showed  in  his  theses,   had  already 
assailed  the  whole  system  of  ..indulgences.     And,  in  regard 
to  any  idea  on  Luther's  part  of  the  effects  of  his  theses 


96  THE   BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

extending  widely  in  Germany,  it  may  be  noticed  that  not 
only  were  they  composed  in  Latin,  but  that  they  dealt  largely 
with  Scholastic  expressions  and  ideas,  which  a  layman  would 
find  it  difficult  to  understand. 

Nevertheless  the  theses  created  a  sensation  which  far 
surpassed  Luther's  expectations.  In  fourteen  days,  as  he  tells 
us,  they  ran  through  the  whole  of  Germany,  and  were  im- 
mediately translated  and  circulated  in  German.  They 
found,  indeed,  the  soil  already  prepared  for  them,  through 
the  indignation  long  since  and  generally  aroused  by  the 
shameless  doings  they  attacked ;  though  till  tHen  nobody,  as 
Luther  expresses  it,  had  liked  to  bell  the  cat,  nobody  had 
dared  to  expose  himself  to  the  blasphemous  clamour  of  the 
indulgence-mongers  and  the  monks  who  were  in  league 
with  them,  still  less  to  the  threatened  charge  of  heresy. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  very  impunity  with  which  this 
traffic  in  indulgences  had  been  maintained  throughout 
German  Christendom,  had  served  to  increase  from  day  to  day 
the  audacity  of  its  promoters.  Eanged  on  the  side  of  these 
doctrines  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  chief  mainstay  of  this 
trade,  stood  the  whole  powerful  order  of  the  Dominicans. 
And  to  this  order  Tetzel  himself,  the  sub-commissioner  of 
indulgences,  belonged.  Already  other  doctrines  of  the  Pope's 
authority,  of  his  power  over  the  salvation  of  the  human 
soul,  and  the  infallibility  of  his  decisions,  had  been  asserted 
with  ever-increasing  boldness.  The  mediaeval  writings  of 
Thomas  Aquinas  had  conspicuously  tended  to  this  result. 
And  a  climax  had  just  been  reached  at  a  so-called  General 
Council,  which  met  at  Eome  shortly  after  Luther's  visit 
there,  and  continued  its  sittings  for  several  years. 

Tetzel,  who  hitherto  had  only  made  himself  notorious 
as  a  preacher,  or  rather  as  a  bawling  mountebank,  now 
answered  Luther  with  two  series  of  theses  of  his  own, 
drawn  up  in  learned  scholastic  form.  One  Conrad  Wimpina, 
a  theologian  of  the  university  of  Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 
whom  the  Archbishop  Albert  had  recommended,  assisted 


CONTROVERSY  CONCERNING  INDULGENCES.      97 

Tetzel  in  this  work.     The  university  of  Frankfort  immedi- 
ately made  Tetzel  doctor  of  theology,  and  thus  espousedX 
his  theses.     Three  hundred  Dominican  monks  assembled  \ 
round  him  while  he  conducted  an  academical  disputation '   \ 
upon  them.     The   doctrines   he   now  advanced   were   the      \ 
doctrines  of  Thomas  Aquinas.     But  at  the  same  time  he      \ 
took  care  to  make  the  question  of  the  Pope's  position  and     /I 
power  the  cardinal  point  at  issue  :  he  and  his  patrons  knew    // 
well  enough,  that  for  Luther,  who  in  his  theses  had  touched     / 
upon  this  question  so  significantly  though  so  briefly,  this     | 
was  the  most  fatal  blow  that  he  could  deal.     *  Christians 
must  be  taught,'  he  declared,  'that  in  all  that  relates  to 
faith  and  salvation,  the  judgment  of  the  Pope  is  absolutely 
infallible,  and  that  all  observances  connected  with  matters 
of  faith  on  which  the  Papal  see  has  expressed  itself,  are 
equivalent  to  Christian  truths,  even  if  they  are  not  to  be 
found  in  Scripture.'    With  distinct  reference  to  his  opponent, 
but  without  actually  mentioning  him  by  name,  he  insists 
that  whoever  defends  heretical  error  must  be  held  to  be  ex- 
communicated, and  if  he  fails  within  a  given  time  to  make 
satisfaction,  incurs  by  right  and  law  the  most  frightful 
penalties.     Furthermore,  he  argued— and  this  has  always 
been  held  up  against  Luther  and  Protestantism — that  if  the 
authority  of  the  Church  and  Pope  should  not  be  recognised, 
every  man  would  believe  only  what  was  pleasing  to  himself  i 
and  what  he  found  in  the  Bible,  and  thus  the  souls  of  all  / 
Christendom  would  be  imperilled. 

Luther's  theses  now  found  another  assailant,  and  one  I 
stronger  even  than  Tetzel,  in  the  person  of  a  Dominican  I 
and  Thomist,  one  Sylvester  Mazolini  of  Prierio  (Prierias),  \ 
master  of  the  sacred  palace  at  Rome,  and  a  confidant  of  the    \ 
Pope.     He  too,  like  Tetzel,  based  his  chief  contention  on  the     1 
question  of  Papal  authority,  and  was  the  first  to  carry  that     1 
contention  to  an  extreme.     The  Pope,  he  said,  is  the  Church 
of  Rome ;    the  Romish  Church  is  the  Universal  Christian 
Church ;  whoever  disputes  the  right  of  the  Romish  Church 

H 


98  THE   BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

f  to  act  entirely  as  she  may,  is  a  heretic.     In  this  way  he 
^  treated  as  contemptuously  as  he  could  the  obscure  German, 
whose  theses,  that  '  bite  like  a  cur,'  as  he  expressed  it,  he 
only  wished  to  dismiss  with  all  despatch. 

Another  Dominican,  James  van  Hoogstraten,  prior  at 
Cologne,  who  had  already  figured  as  the  prime  zealot  in  the 
affair  about  Keuchlin,  which  he  was  still  prosecuting,  now 
demanded,  in  his  preface  to  a  pamphlet  on  that  subject,  that 
Luther  should  be  sent  to  the  stake  as  a  dangerous  heretic. 

But  a  far  more  important,  and  to  Luther  an  utterly  un- 
expected opponent,  appeared  in  the  person  of  John  Eck,  pro- 
fessor at  the  university  of  Ingolstadt,  and  canon  at  Eichstädt. 
He  was  a  man  of  very  extensive  learning  in  the  earlier  and 
later  Scholastic  theology  of  the  Church ;  he  was  a  sharp- 
witted  and  ready  controversialist,  and  he  knew  how  to  use  his 
weapons  in  disputations.  He  was  fully  conscious  of  these 
gifts,  and  made  a  bold  push  to  advance  himself  by  their 
means,  whilst  troubling  himself  very  little  in  reality  about 
the  high  and  sacred  issues  involved  in  the  dispute.  He 
sought  to  keep  on  friendly  and  useful  relations  with  other 
circles  than  those  of  Scholastic  theology,  such  as  with 
learned  Humanists,  and  a  short  time  before,  with  Luther 
himself  and  his  colleague  Carlstadt,  to  whom  he  had  been 
introduced  through  a  jurist  of  Nuremberg  named  Scheuerl. 
Luther,  after  the  publication  of  his .  theses,  had  written  a 
friendly  letter  to  Eck.  What  then  was  his  surprise  to  find 
himself  attacked  by  Eck  in  a  critical  reply  -entitled 
'  Obelisks.'  The  tone  of  his  remarks  was  as  wounding, 
coarse,  and  vindictive  as  their  substance  was  superficial. 
They  aimed  a  well-meditated  blow,  by  stigmatising  Luther's 
propositions  as  Bohemian  poison,  mere  Hussite  heresy. 
Eck,  when  reproached  for  such  a  breach  of  friendship, 
declared  that  he  had  written  the  book  for  his  bishop  of 
Eichstädt,  and  not  with  any  view  of  publication. 

Luther  himself,  loud  as  was  his  call  to  battle  in  his  theses, 
had  still  no  intention  of  engaging  in  a  general  contest  about 


CONTROVERSY  CONCERNING  INDULGENCES.       99 

the  leading  principles  of  the  Church.  He  had  not  yet 
realised  the  whole  extent  and  bearings  of  the  question 
about  indulgences.  Keferring  afterwards  to  the  rapid  circu- 
lation of  his  theses  through  Germany,  and  to  the  fame 
which  his  onslaught  had  earned  him,  he  says,  '  I  did  not 
relish  the  fame,  for  I  myself  was  not  aware  of  what  there 
was  in  the  indulgences,  and  the  song  was  pitched  too  high 
for  my  voice.'  People  far  and  wide  were  proud  of  the  man 
who  spoke  out  so  boldly  in  his  theses,  while  the  multitude 
of  doctors  and  bishops  kept  silence ;  but  he  still  stood 
alone  before  the  public,  confronting  the  storm  which  he 
had  aroused  against  himself.  He  did  not  conceal  the  fact, 
that  now  and  then  he  felt  strange  and  anxious  about  his 
position.  But  he  had  learned  to  take  his  stand  singly 
and  firmly  on  the  word  of  Scripture,  and  on  the  truth 
which  God  therein  revealed  to  him  and  brought  home  to 
his  conviction.  He  was  only  the  more  strengthened  in  that 
conviction  by  the  replies  of  his  opponents  ;  for  he  must  well 
have  been  amazed  at  their  utter  want  of  Scriptural  reference 
to  disprove  his  conclusions,  and  at  the  blind  subservience 
with  which  they  merely  repeated  the  statements  of  their 
Scholastic  authorities.  The  arrogant  reply  of  Prierias,  his 
opponent  of  highest  rank,  seemed  to  him  particularly  poor. 
In  confident  words  Luther  assures  his  friends  of  his  con- 
viction that  what  he  taught  was  the  purest  theology,  that 
what  he  upheld  and  his  opponents  attacked,  was  a  revela- 
tion direct  from  God.  He  knew  too,  that,  in  the  words  of 
St.  Paul,  he  had  to  preach  what  to  the  holiest  of  the  Jews  was 
a  stumbling-block,  and  to  the  wisest  of  the  Greeks  foolish- 
ness. He  was  none  the  less  ready  to  do  so,  that  Jesus 
Christ,  his  Lord,  might  say  of  him,  as  He  said  once  of  that 
Apostle,  *  I  will  show  him  how  great  things  he  must  suffer 
for  my  name's  sake.'  Luther's .  enemies  in  the  Eomish 
Church  have  thought  to  see  in  these  words  an  instance  of 
boundless  self-assertion  on  the  part  of  an  individual  subject. 
From  henceforth  Luther,  while  pursuing  with  unabated 


loo  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

zeal  his  active  duties  at  the  university  and  in  the  pulpit  at 
"Wittenberg,  and  taking  up  his  pen  again  and  again  to  write 
short  pamphlets  of  a  simple  and  edifying  kind,  occupied 
himself  untiringly  with  controversial  writings,  with  the  ob- 
ject partly  of  defending  himself  against  attacks,  partly  of 
estabhshing  on  a  firm  basis  the  principles  he  had  set  forth, 
and  of  further  investigating  and  making  plain  the  way  of 
true  Christian  knowledge.  He  first  addressed  himself  to 
German  Christendom,  in  German,  in  his  '  Sermon  on 
Indulgences  and  Grace.'  His  inward  excitement  is  shown 
by  the  vehemence  and  ruggedness  of  expression  which  now 
and  henceforth  marked  his  polemical  writings.  It  recalls 
to  mind  the  tone  then  commonly  met  with  not  only  among 
ordinary  monks,  but  even  in  the  controversies  of  theologians 
and  learned  men,  and  in  which  Luther's  own  opponents, 
especially  that  high  Koman  theologian,  had  set  him  the 
example.  In  Luther  we  see  now,  throughout  his  whole 
method  of  polemics,  as  we  shall  see  still  more  later  on,  a 
mighty.  Vulcanic,  natural  power  breaking  forth,  but  always 
regulated  by  the  humblest  devotion  to  the  lofty  mission  that 
his  conscience  has  imposed  upon  him.  Even  in  his  most 
vehement  outbursts  we  never  fail  to  catch  the  tender 
expressions  of  a  Christian  warmth  and  fervour  of  the 
heart,  and  a  loftiness  of  language  corresponding  to  the 
sacredness  of  the  subject. 

In  the  midst  of  these  labours  and  controversies,  Luther 
had  to  undertake  a  journey  in  the  spring  of  1518  (about 
the  middle  of  April)  to  a  chapter  general  of  his  Order  at 
Heidelberg,  where,  according  to  the  rules,  a  new  Vicar  was 
chosen  after  a  triennial  term  of  office.  His  friends  feared 
the  snares  that  his  enemies  might  have  prepared  for  him 
on  the  road.  He  himself  did  not  hesitate  for  a  moment  to 
obey  the  call  of  duty. 

The  Elector  Frederick,  who  owed  him  at  least  a  debt  of 
gratitude  for  having  helped  to  keep  his  territory  free  from 
the  rapacious  Tetzel,  but  who,  both  now  and  afterwards, 


CONTROVERSY  CONCERNING  INDULGENCES,      loi 

conscientiously  held  aloof  from  the  contest,  gave  proof  on 
this  occasion  of  his  undiminished  kindness  and  regard  for 
him,  in  a  letter  he  addressed  to  Staupitz.  He  writes  as 
follows : — *  As  you  have  required  Martin  Luder  to  attend 
a  Chapter  at  Heidelberg,  it  is  his  wish,  although  we  grudge 
giving  him  permission  to  leave  our  university,  to  go  there 
and  render  due  obedience.  And  as  we  are  indebted  to 
your  suggestion  for  this  excellent  doctor  of  theology,  in 
whom  we  are  so  well  pleased,  ....  it  is  our  desire  that 
you  will  further  his  safe  return  here,  and  not  allow  him  to 
be  delayed.'  He  also  gave  Luther  cordial  letters  of  intro- 
duction to  Bishop  Laurence  of  Würzburg,  through  whose 
town  his  road  passed,  and  to  the  Count  Palatine  Wolfgang, 
at  Heidelberg.  From  both  of  these,  though  many  had 
already  declaimed  against  him  as  a  heretic,  he  met  with  a 
most  friendly  and  obliging  reception. 

His  relations,  moreover,  at  Heidelberg  with  his  fellow- 
members  of  the  Order,  and,  above  all,  with  Staupitz, 
remained  uncloided.  Staupitz  was  re-elected  here  as 
Vicar  of  the  Order ;  the  office  of  provincial  Vicar  passed  from 
Luther  to  John  "Lange,  of  Erfurt,  his  intimate  friend  and 
fellow-thinker.  The  question  about  indulgences  had  not 
entered  at  all  into  the  business  of  the  chapter.  But  at  a  dis- 
putation held  in  the  convent,  according  to  custom,  Luther 
presided,  and  wrote  for  it  some  propositions  embodying  the 
fundamental  points  of  his  doctrines  concerning  the  sinful- 
ness and  powerlessness  of  man,  and  righteousness,  through 
God's  grace,  in  Christ,  and  against  the  philosophy  and 
theology  of  Aristotelian  Scholasticism.  He  attracted  the 
keen  interest  of  several  young  inmates  of  the  convent  who 
afterwards  became  his  coadjutors,  such  as  John  Brenz, 
Erhardt  Schnepf,  and  Martin  Butzer.  They  marvelled  at 
his  power  of  drawing  out  the  meaning  from  the  Scriptures, 
and  of  speaking  not  only  with  clearness  and  decision,  but 
also  with  refinement  and  grace.  Thus  his  journey  served 
to  promote  at  once  his  reputation  and  his  influence. 


I02  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

On  his  return  to  Wittenberg  on  May  15,  after  an 
absence  of  five  weeks,  he  hastened  to  complete  a  detailed 
explanation  in  Latin  of  the  contents  of  his  theses,  under 
the  title  of  '  Solutions,'  the  greatest  and  most  important 
work  that  he  published  at  this  period  of  the  contest. 

The  most  valuable  fruit  of  the  controversy  so  far  as 
regards  Luther  and  his  later  work,  and  evidence  of  which 
is  given  in  these  '  Solutions,'  was  the  advance  he  had 
made,  and  had  been  compelled  to  make,  in  the  course  of 
his  own  self-reasoning  and  researches.  New  questions 
presented  themselves :  the  inward  connection  of  the  truth 
became  gradually  manifest :  new  results  forced  themselves 
upon  him  :  his  anxiety  to  solve  his  difficulties  still  con- 
tinued. 

Luther  in  his  theses,  when  speaking  of  the  call  of 
jJesus  to  repentance,  had  never  indeed  admitted  that  the 

(sacrament  of  penance  enjoined  by  the  Church,  with 
auricular  confession  and  the  penances  and  satisfactions 
imposed  by  the  priest,  was  based  on  God's  command  or  the 
J  authority  of  the  Bible.  He  now  openly  acknowledged  and 
'  declared  that  these  ecclesiastical  acts  were  not  enjoined  by 
i  Christ  at  all,  but  solely  by  the  Pope  and  the  Church. 

The  contest  about  the  indulgences  granted  by  the  Pope 
in  respect  of  these  acts,  opened  up  now  the  doctrine  of  the 
so-called  treasures  of  the  Church,  on  which  the  Pope  drew  for 
his  bounty.  Luther,  while  conceding  to  the  Pope  the  right 
of  dispensing  indulgences  in  the  sense  understood  by  himself, 
guarded  himself  against  admitting  that  the  merits  of  Christ 
constituted  that  treasure,  and  so  should  be  disposed  of  by 
the  Pope  in  this  manner  :  the  dispensation  of  indulgences 
rested  simply  on  the  Papal  power  of  the  keys.  It  was 
now  objected  to  him  that  herein  he  was  going  counter  to 
an  express  and  duly  recorded  declaration  of  a  pope,  Cle- 
ment VI.,  namely,  that  the  merits  of  Christ  were  undoubtedly 
to  be  dispensed  in  indulgences.  Luther,  who  in  his  theses 
against  the  abuse   of  indulgences   had   abstained   as   yet 


CONTROVERSY  CONCERNING   INDULGENCES.     103 

from  propounding  anything  which  might  be  inconsistent 
with  the  ascertained  meaning  of  the  Pope,  now  insisted 
without  hesitation  on  this  contradiction.  That  Papal  pro- 
nouncement, he  declared,  did  not  bear  the  character  of  a 
dogmatic  decree,  and  a  distinction  was  to  be  drawn  between 
a  decree  of  the  Pope  and  its  acceptance  by  the  Church 
through  a  Council. 

How  then,  Luther  proceeded  to  inquire,  should  the 
Christian  obtain  forgiveness  of  sin,  reconciliation  with  God, 
righteousness  before  God,  peace  and  holiness  in  God? 
And  in  answering  this  question  he  reverted  to  the  key-note 
of  his  doctrine  of  salvation,  which  he  had  begun  to  preach 
before  the  contest  about  indulgences  commenced.  He  had 
already  declared  that  salvation  came  through  faith;  in 
other  words,  through  heartfelt  trust  in  God's  mercy,  as 
announced  by  the  Bible,  and  in  the  Saviour  Christ.  How 
was  that  consistent  with  the  acts  of  ecclesiastical  penance, 
such  as  absolution  in  particular,  which  must  be  obtained 
from  the  priest  ?  Luther  now  declared  that  God  would 
assuredly  allow  his  offer  of  forgiveness  'to  be  conveyed  to 
those  who  longed  for  it,  by  His  commissioned  servant  of 
the  Church,  the  priest,  but  that  the  assurance  of  such  for- 
giveness must  lean  simply  on  the  promise  of  God,  by 
virtue  and  on  behalf  of  Whom  the  priest  performed  his 
office.  And  at  the  same  time  he  declared  that  this  promise 
could  be  conveyed  to  a  troubled  Christian  by  any  brother- 
Christian,  and  that  full  forgiveness  would  be  granted  to 
him  if  he  had  faith.  No  enumeration  of  particular  sins 
was  necessary  for  that  end;  it  was  enough  if  the  repentant 
and  faithful  yeartiing  for  the  word  of  mercy  was  made 
known  to  the  priest  or  brother  from  whom  the  message  of 
comfort  was  sought.  Hence  it  followed,  on  the  one  hand, 
that  priestly  absolution  and  the  sacrament  availed  nothing 
to  the  receiver  unless  he  turned  with  inward  faith  to  his 
God  and  Saviour,  received  with  faith  the  word  spoken  to 
him,  and  through  that  word  let  himself  be  raised  to  greater 


A 


104  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

faith.  It  followed  also,  on  the  other  hand,  that  a  penitent 
and  faithful  Christian,  holding  fast  to  that  word,  to  whom 
the  priest  should  arbitrarily  refuse  the  absolution  he 
looked  for,  could,  in  spite  of  such  refusal,  participate  in 
God's  forgiveness  to  the  full.  Herewith  was  broken  at 
once  the  most  powerful  bond  by  which  the  dominant 
Church  enslaved  the  souls  to  the  organs  of  her  hierarchy. 
Luther  has  humbled  man  to  the  lowest  before  God,  through 
Whose  grace  alone  the  sinner,  in  meek  and  believing 
trustfulness,  can  be  saved.  But  in  God  and  through  this 
grace  he  teaches  him  to  be  free  and  certain  of  salvation. 
Christ,  he  says,  has  not  willed  that  man's  salvation  should 
lie  in  the  hand  or  at  the  pleasure  of  a  man. 

As  for  the  outward  acts  and  punishments  which  the 
Church  and  the  Pope  imposed,  he  did  not  seek  to  aboHsh 
them.  In  this  external  province  at  least  he  recognised  in 
the  Pope  a  power  originating  direct  from  God.  Here,  in 
his  opinion,  the  Christian  was  bound  to  put  up  with  even 
an  abuse  of  power  and  the  infliction  of  unjust  punish- 
ment. 

The  whole  contest  turned  ultimately  on  the  question  as 
to  who  should  determine  disputes  about  the  truth,  and  where 
to  seek  the  highest  standard  and  the  purest  source  of  Chris- 
tian verity.  Gradually  at  lirst,  and  manifestly  with  many 
inward  struggles  on  the  part  of  Luther,  his  views  and  prin- 
ciples gained  clearness  and  consistency.  Even  within  the 
CathoUc  Church  the  doctrine  as  to  the  highest  authority  to 
be  recognised  in  questions  of  belief  and  conduct  was  by  no 
means  so  firmly  established  as  is  frequently  represented  by 
both  Protestants  and  Koman  Catholics.  The  doctrine  of  the 
infallibility  of  the  Pope,  and  of  the  absolute  authority  attach- 
ing thereby  to  his  decisions,  however  confidently  asserted  by 
the  admirers  of  Aquinas  and  accepted  by  the  Popes,  was  not 
erected  into  a  dogma  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church  until 
1870.  The  other  theory,  that  even  the  Pope  can  err,  and 
that  the  supreme  decision  rests  with  a  General  Council,  had 


CONTROVERSY  CONCERNING  INDULGENCES.      105 

been  maintained  by  theologians  whom,  at  the  same  time,  no 
Pope  had  ever  ventured  to  treat  as  heretics.  It  was  on  the 
ground  of  this  latter  theory  that  the  University  of  Paris, 
then  the  first  university  in  Europe,  had  just  appealed  from 
the  Pope  to  a  General  Council.  In  Germany  opinions  were 
on  the  whole  divided  between  this  and  the  theory  of  Papal 
absolutism.  Again,  the  view  that  neither  the  decisions  of  a 
Council  nor  of  a  Pope  were  ipso  facto  infallible,  but  that  an 
appeal  therefrom  lay  to  a  council  possibly  better  informed, 
had  already  been  advanced  with  impunity  by  writers  of  the 
fifteenth  century.  The  only  point  as  to  which  no  doubt 
was  expressed,  was  that  the  decisions  of  previous  General 
Councils,  acknowledged  also  by  the  Pope,  contained  abso- 
lutely pure  Divine  truth,  and  that  the  Christian  Universal 
Church  could  never  fall  into  error;  but  even  then,  with 
reference  to  this  Church,  the  question  still  remained  as  to 
who  or  what  was  her  true  and  final  representative. 

Luther  now  followed  what  he  found  to  be  the  teaching 
of  the  Bible,  so  far  as  that  teaching  presented  itself  to  his 
own  independent  and  conscientious  research,  and  as,  traced 
home  in  the  New  Testament  and  especially  in  the  Epistles 
of  St.  Paul,  it  shaped  itself  to  his  perception.  But  for  all  this, 
he  would  not  yet  abandon  his  agreement  with  the  Church 
of  which  he  was  a  member.  The  very  man  whom  Eck 
had  branded  as  full  of  *  Bohemian  poison,'  complained  of 
the  Bohemian  Brethren  or  Moravians  for  exalting  themselves 
in  their  ignorance  above  the  rest  of  Christendom.  A  Thomist 
indeed,  who  to  him  was  only  a  Scholastic  among  others,  he 
fearlessly  opposed;  but  still  we  find  no  expression  of  a 
thought  that  the  Church,  assembled  at  a  General  Council,  had 
ever  erred,  nor  even  that  any  future  Council  could  pronounce 
an  erroneous  decision  upon  the  present  points  in  dispute. 
Nay,  he  awaits  the  decision  of  such  a  Council  against  the 
charges  of  heresy  already  brought  against  him,  though 
without  ever  admitting  his  readiness,  if  such  a  Council 
should  assemble,  to  submit  beforehand  and  unconditionally 


{ 


io6  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

to  its  decision,  whatever  it  might  be.  Above  and  before  any 
such  decision  he  held  firm  to  the  authority  of  his  own 
conviction  :  his  conscience,  he  said,  would  not  allow  him  to 
yield  from  that  resolve ;  he  was  not  standing  alone  in  this 
contest,  but  with  him  stood  the  truth,  together  with  all 
those  who  shared  his  doubts  as  to  the  virtue  of  indulgences. 
Still,  while  rejecting  the  doctrine  of  the  infallibility  of 
the  Popes,  it  was  a  hard  matter  for  Luther  to  reproach  them 
also  with  actual  error  in  their  decisions.  We  have  seen 
how  necessity  forced  him  to  do  so  in  the  case  of  Clement  VI. 
Towards  the  existing  Head  of  the  Church  he  desired  to 
remain,  as  far  as  possible,  in  concord  and  subjection.  It 
was  not  for  mere  appearance'  sake,  that  in  his  ninety-five 
theses  he  represented  his  own  view  of  indulgences  as  being 
also  that  of  the  Pope.  He  hoped,  at  all  events,  and  wished 
with  aU  his  heart  that  it  was  so ;  and  later  on,  towards  the 
close  of  his  life,  he  tells  us  how  confidently  he  had  cherished 
the  expectation  that  the  Pope  would  be  his  patron  in  the 
war  against  the  shameless  vendors  of  indulgences.  Even 
after  those  hopes  had  failed,  he  spoke  of  Leo  X.  with  respect 
as  a  man  of  good  disposition  and  an  educated  theologian, 
whose  only  misfortune  was  that  he  lived  in  an  atmosphere 
of  corruption  and  in  a  vicious  age.  He  was  none  the  less 
assured  of  his  Divine  credentials  as  the  supreme  earthly 
Shepherd  of  Christendom,  and  the  depositary  of  all  canonical 
power.  The  duty  of  humility  and  obedience,  impressed  on 
him  to  excess  as  a  monk,  must,  no  less  than  the  fear  of  the 
possible  dangers  and  troubles  in  store  for  himself  and  his 
Christian'  brethren,  have  made  Luther  shrink  from  the 
thought  of  having  actually  to  testify  and  fight  against  him. 
He  ventured  to  dedicate  his  '  Solutions '  to  the  Pope  him- 
self. The  letter  of  May  30,  1518,  in  which  he  did  this, 
shows  the  peculiar,  anomalous,  and-  untenable  position  in 
which  he  now  found  himself  placed.  He  is  horrified,  he 
says,  at  the  charges  of  heresy  and  schism  brought  against 
himself.   He  who  would  much  prefer  to  live  in  peace,  had  no 


C0NTR0VER:SY  concerning  indulgences.     107 

wish  to  set  up  any  dogmas  in  his  theses,  provoked  as  they  \ 
were  by  a  pubHc  scandal,  but  simply  in  Christian  zeal,  or,  I 
as  others  might  have  it,  in  youthful  ardour,  to  invite  men  I 
to  a  disputation,  and  his  present  desire  was  to  publish  his  / 
explanation  of  them  under  the  patronage  and  protection  of/ 
the  Pope  himself.     But  at  the  same  time  he  declares  that 
his  conscience  was  innocent  and  untroubled,  and  he  adds 
with  emphatic  brevity,  '  Ketract  I  cannot.'     He  concludes  by 
humbly  casting  himself  at  the  Pope's  feet  with  the  words, 
*  Give  me  life  or  death,  accept  or  reject  me  as  you  please.'  1 
He  will  recognise  the  Papal  voice  as  that  of  the  Lord  Jesus  ■ 
Himself.     He  will,  if  worthy  of  death,  not  flinch  from  it. 
But  that  declaration  of  his,  which  he  could  not  retract,  must 
stand. 


io8  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME, 


CHAPTEE  III. 

LUTHER   AT   AUGSBURG   BEFORE    CAIETAN.      APPEAL 
TO   A    COUNCIL. 

The  task  that  Luther  had  now  undertaken  lay  heavy  upon 
his  soul.  He  was  sincerely  anxious,  whilst  fighting  for  the 
truth,  to  remain  at  peace  with  his  Church,  and  to  serve  her 
by  the  struggle.  Pope  Leo,  on  the  contrary,  as  was  consist- 
ent with  his  whole  character,  treated  the  matter  at  first  very 
lightly,  and  when  it  threatened  to  become  dangerous, 
thought  only  how,  by  means  of  his  Papal  power,  to  make 
the  restless  German  monk  harmless. 

Two  expressions  of  his  in  these  early  days  of  the  contest 
are  recorded.  '  Brother  Martin,'  he  said,  *  is  a  man  of  a 
very  fine  genius,  and  this  outbreak  the  mere  squabble  of 
envious  monks ; '  and  again,  '  It  is  a  drunken  German  who 
has  written  the  theses ;  he  will  think  differently  about  them 
when  sober.'  Three  months  after  the  theses  had  appeared, 
he  ordered  the  Vicar-General  of  the  Augustinians  to  '  quiet 
down  the  man,'  hoping  still  to  extinguish  easily  the  flame. 
The  next  step  was  to  institute  a  tribunal  for  heretics  at 
Rome,  for  Luther's  trial :  what  its  judgment  would  be  was 
patent  from  the  fact  that  the  single  theologian  of  learning 
among  the  judges  was  Sylvester  Prierias.  Before  this 
tribunal  Luther  was  cited  on  August  7 ;  within  sixty  days 
he  was  to  appear  there  at  Eome.  Friend  and  foe  could 
well  feel  certain  that  they  would  look  in  vain  for  his  return. 

Papal  influence,  meanwhile,  had  been  brought  to  bear  on 
the  Elector  Frederick,  to  induce  him  not  to  take  the  part 
of  Luther,  and  the  chief  agent  chosen  for  working  on  the 


LUTHER  AT  AUGSBURG  BEFORE   CAIETAN      109 

Elector  and  the  Emperor  Maximilian  was  the  Papal  legate, 
Cardinal  Thomas  Vio  of  Gaeta,  called  Caietan,  who  had 
made  his  appearance  in  Germany.  The  University  of 
Wittenberg,  on  the  other  hand,  interposed  on  behalf  of 
their  member,  whose  theology  was  popular  there,  and  whose 
biblical  lectures  attracted  crowds  of  enthusiastic  hearers. 
He  had  just  been  joined  at  Wittenberg  by  his  fellow- 
professor  Philip  Melancthon,  then  only  twenty-one  years 
old,  but  already  in  the  first  rank  of  Greek  scholars,  and  the 
bond  of  friendship  was  now  formed  which  lasted  through 
their  lives.  The  university  claimed  that  Luther  should  at 
least  be  tried  in  Germany. 

Luther  expressed  the  same  wish  through  Spalatin  to 
his  sovereign.  He  now  also  answered  publicly  the  attack 
of  Prierias  upon  his  theses,  and  declared  not  only  that  a 
Council  alone  could  represent  the  Church,  but  that  even 
a  decree  of  Council  might  err,  and  that  an  Act  of  the 
Church  was  no  final  evidence  of  the  truth  of  a  doctrine. 
Being  threatened  with  excommunication,  he  preached  a 
sermon  on  the  subject,  and  showed  how  a  Christian,  even 
if  under  the  ban  of  the  Church,  or  excluded  from  outward 
communion  with  her,  could  still  remain  in  true  inward 
communion  with  Christ  and  His  believers,  and  might  then 
see  in  his  excommunication  the  noblest  merit  of  his  own. 

The  Pope,  meanwhile,  had  passed  from  his  previous 
state  of  haughty  complacency  to  one  of  violent  haste. 
Already,  on  August  23,  thus  long  before  the  sixty  days  had 
expired,  he  demanded  the  Elector  to  deliver  up  this  *  child 
of  the  devil,'  who  boasted  of  his  protection,  to  the  legate, 
to  bring  away  with  him.  This  is  clearly  shown  by  two 
private  briefs  from  the  Pope,  of  August  23  and  25,  the  one 
addressed  to  the  legate,  the  other  to  the  head  of  all  the 
Augustinian  convents  in  Saxony,  as  distinguished  from  the 
Vicar  of  those  congregations,  Staupitz,  who  already  was 
looked  on  with  suspicion  at  Eome.  These  briefs  instructed 
both  men  to  hasten  the  arrest  of  the  heretic  ;  his  adherents 


no  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME, 

were  to  be  secured  with  him,  and  every  place  where  he  was 
tolerated  laid  under  the  interdict.  So  unheard  of  seemed 
this  conduct  of  the  Pope,  that  Protestant  historians  would 
not  believe  in  the  genuineness  of  the  briefs  ;  but  we  shall 
soon  see  how  Caietan  himself  refers  to  the  one  in  his 
possession. 

Other  and  general  relations,  interests,  and  movements 
of  the  ecclesiastical  and  political  life  of  the  German  nation 
now  began  to  exercise  an  influence,  direct  or  indh-ect,  upon 
the  history  of  Luther  and  the  development  of  the  struggles 
of  the  Keformation,  and  even  caused  the  Pope  himself  to 
moderate  his  conduct. 

Whilst  questions  of  the  deepest  kind  about  the  means 
of  salvation,  and  the  grounds  and  rules  of  Christian  truth, 
had  been  opened  up  for  the  first  time  by  Luther  during  the 
contest  about  indulgences,  the  abuses,  encroachments,  and 
acts  of  tyranny  committed  by  the  Pope  on  the  temporal 
domain  of  the  Church,  and  closely  affecting  the  political 
and  social  life  of  the  people,  had  long  been  the  subject  of 
bitter  complaints  and  vigorous  remonstrances  throughout 
Germany.     These  complaints  and  remonstrances  had  been 
raised  by  princes  and  states  of  the  Empire,  who  ,would  not 
be  silenced  by  any  theories  or  dogmas  about  the  Divine 
authority  and  infallibility  of  the  Po^pe,  nor  crushed  by  any 
mere  sentence  of  excommunication.     And  in  raising  them 
they  had  made   no   question  of  the   Divine  right   of  the 
Papacy.      Was    it   not   natural   that,    in   the   indignation 
excited  by  their  wrongs,  they  should  turn  to  the  man  who 
had  laid  the  axe  to  the  root  of  the  tree  which  bore  such 
fruit,  and  at  least  consider  the  possibility  of  profiting  by 
his  work  ?     Luther,  on  his  part,  showed  at  first  a  singularly 
small  acquaintance  with  the  circumstances  of  their  com- 
plaints, and  seemed  hardly   aware   of  the   loud   protests 
raised  so  long  on  this  subject  at  the  Diets.     But  with  the 
question  of  indulgences  the  field  of  his  experience  broadened 
in  this  respect.     The  care  he  evinced  in  this  matter  for  the 


LUTHER  AT  AUGSBURG  BEFORE  CAIETAN.     in 

care  of  souls  and  true  Christian  morality  made  him  the 
ally  of  all  those  who  were  alarmed  at  the  vast  export  of 
money  to  Kome,  about  which  he  had  already  said  in  his 
theses  that  the  Christian  sheep  were  being  regularly  fleeced. 

In  another  respect,  also,  the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  the 
Papal  see  was  closely  interwoven  with  the  political  condition 
and  history  of  Germany.  If  in  theory  the  Pope  claimed  t^ 
control  and  confirm  the  decrees  even  of  the  civil  power,  ir 
practice  he  at  least  attempted  to  assert  and  maintain  ari 
omnipresent  influence.  And  with  regard  to  Germany  it 
was  all-important  to  him  that  the  Empire  should  not 
become  so  powerful  as  to  endanger  his  authority  in  general 
and  his  territorial  sovereignty  in  Italy.  However  loftily 
the  Popes  in  their  briefs  proclaimed  their  immutable  rights, 
derived  from  God,  and  their  plenary  power,  and  took  care 
to  let  theologians  and  jurists  advance  such  pretensions, 
they  understood  clearly  enough  in  their  practical  conduct 
to  adjust  those  relations  to  the  rules  of  political  or  diplo- 
matic necessity. 

In  the  summer  of  1518  a  Diet, was  held  at  Augsburg, 
at  which  the  Papal  legate  attended.  The  Pope  was  anxious 
to  obtain  its  consent  to  the  imposition  of  a  heavy  tax 
throughout  the  Empire,  to  be  applied  ostensibly  for  the  war 
against  the  Turks,  but  alleged  to  be  wanted  in  reality  for 
entirely  other  objects.  The  Emperor  Maximilian,  now  old 
and  hastening  to  his  end,  was  endeavouring  to  secure  the 
succession  of  his  grandson  Charles,  and  Caietan's  chief 
task  was  to  exert  his  influence  with  Maximilian  and  the 
Elector  Frederick  to  bring  Luther  into  their  disfavour. 
The  Archbishop  Albert,  who  had  been  hit  so  hard  by 
Luther's  attack  on  the  traffic  in  indulgences,  was  solemnly 
proclaimed  Cardinal  by  order  of  the  Pope. 

Of  Maximilian  it  might  fairly  have  been  expected  that, 
after  his  many  experiences  and  contests  with  the  Popes,  he 
would  at  least  protect  Luther  from  the  worst,  however  un- 
likely it  might  be  that  he  should  entertain  the  idea  of  effect- 


112  THE  BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

ing,  by  his  help,  a  great  reform  in  the  National  Church. 
He  did  indeed  express  his  wish  to  Pfeffinger,  a  counsellor  of 
the  Elector,  that  his  prince  should  take  care  of  the  monk, 
as  his  services  might  some  day  be  wanted.  But  he  supported 
the  Pope  in  the  matter  of  the  tax,  and  hoped  to  gain  him 
for  his  own  political  ends.  He  opposed  Luther  also  in  his 
attack  on  indulgences,  on  the  ground  that  it  endangered  the 
Church,  and  that  he  was  resolved  to  uphold  the  action  taken 
by  the  Pope. 

This  demand  for  a  tax,  however,  was  received  with  the 
utmost  disfavour  both  by  the  Diet  and  the  Empire ;  and  a 
long-cherished  bitterness  of  feeling  now  found  expression. 
An  anonymous  pamphlet  was  circulated,  from  the  pen  of 
one  Fischer,  a  prebendary  of  Würzburg,  which  bluntly  de- 
clared that  the  avaricious  lords  of  Eome  only  wished  to 
cheat  the  '  drunken  Germans,'  and  that  the  real  Turks  were 
to  be  looked  for  in  Italy.     This  pamphlet  reached  Wittenberg 
and  fell  into  the  hands  of  Luther,  whom  now  for  the  first 
time  we  hear  denouncing  '  Eoman  cunning,'  though  he  only 
charged   the   Pope   himself  with    allowing    his    grasping 
Florentine  relations  to  deceive  him.     The  Diet  seized  the 
opportunity  offered  by  this  demand  for  a  tax,  to  bring  up 
a  whole  list  of  old  grievances ;  the  large  sums  drawn  from 
German  benefices  by  the  Pope  under  the  name  of  annates, 
or  extorted  under  other  pretexts  ;  the  illegal  usurpation  of 
ecclesiastical  patronage  in  Germany,  the  constant  infringe- 
ment of  concordats,   and  so  on.     The  demand  itself  was 
refused,  and  in  addition  to  this,  an  address  was  presented  to 
the  Diet  from  the  bishop  and  clergy  of  Liege,  inveighing 
against    the   lying,    thieving,    avaricious   conduct   of    the 
Romish   minions,  in   such   sharp   and  violent  tones  that 
Luther,  on  reading  it  afterwards  when  printed,  thought  it 
only  a  hoax,  and  not  really  an  episcopal  remonstrance. 

This  was  reason  enough  why  Caietan,  to  avoid  in- 
creasing the  excitement,  should  not  attempt  to  lay  hands 
on  the  Wittenberg  opponent  of  indulgences.     The  Elector 


LUTHER  AT  AUGSBURG  BEFORE   CAIETAN.      113 

Frederick,  from  whose  hands  Caietan  would  have  to  demand 
Luther,  was  on«  of  the  most  powerful  and  personally 
respected  princes  of  the  Empire,  and  his  influence  was  es- 
pecially important  in  view  of  the  election  of  a  new  Emperor. 
This  prince  went  now  in  person  to  Caietan  on  Luther's  be- 
half, and  Caietan  promised  him,  at  the  very  time  that  the 
brief  was  on  its  way  to  him  from  Kome,  that  he  would  hear 
Luther  at  Augsburg,  treat  him  with  fatherly  kindness,  and 
let  him  -depart  in  safety. 

Luther  accordingly  was  sent  to  Augsburg.  It  was  an 
anxious,  time  for  himself  and  his  friends  when  he  had  to 
leave  for  that  distant  place,  where  the  Elector,  with  all  his 
care,  could  not  employ  any  physical  means  for  his  protection, 
and  to  stand  accused  as  a  heretic  before  that  Papal  legate 
who,  from  his  own  theological  principles,  was  bound  to 
condemn  him,  Caietan  being  a  zealous  Thomist  like  Prierias, 
and  already  notorious  as  a  champion  of  indulgences  and 
Papal  absolutism.  *  My  thoughts  on  the  way,'  said  Luther 
afterwards,  *  were  now  I  must  die ;  and  I  often  lamented 
the  disgrace  I  should  be  to  my  dear  parents.' 

He  went  thither  in  humble  garb  and  manner.  He  made 
his  way  on  foot  till  within  a  short  distance  of  Augsburg, 
when  illness  and  weakness  overcame  him,  and  he  was 
forced  to  proceed  by  carriage.  Another  younger  monk  of 
Wittenberg  accompanied  him,  his  pupil  Leonard  Baier. 
At  Nuremberg  he  was  joined  by  his  friend  Link,  who  held 
an  appointment  there  as  preacher.  From  him  he  borrowed 
a  monk's  frock,  his  own  being  too  bad  for  Augsburg.  He 
arrived  here  on  October  7. 

The  surroundings  he  now  entered,  and  the  proceedings 
impending  over  him,  were  wholly  novel  and  unaccustomed. 
But  he  met  with  men  who  received  him  with  kindness  and 
consideration ;  several  of  them  were  gentlemen  of  Augsburg 
favourable  to  him,  especially  the  respected  patrician.  Dr. 
Conrad  Peutinger,  and  two  counsellors  of  the  Elector. 
They  advised  him  to  behave  with  prudence,  and  to  observe 


114  THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

carefully  all  the  necessary  forms,  to  which  as  yet  he  was 
a  stranger. 

Luther  at  once  announced  his  arrival  to  Caietan,  who 
was  anxious  to  receive  him  without  delay.  His  friends, 
however,  kept  him  back  until  they  had  obtained  a  written 
safe-conduct  from  the  Emperor,  who  was  then  hunti;Qg  in 
the  environs.  In  the  meantime,  a  distinguished  friend 
of  Caietan,  one  Urbanus  of  Serralonga,  tried  to  persuade 
him,  in  a  flippant,  and,  as  Luther  thought,  a  downright 
Italian  manner,  to  come  forward  and  simply  pronounce 
six  letters, — Reroco — I  retract,  urbanus  asked  him  with  a 
smJle  if  he  thought  his  sovereign  would  risk  his  country  for 
his  sake.  '  God  forbid  ! '  answered  Luther.  '  Where  then 
do  you  mean  to  take  refuge?'  he  went  on  to  ask  him. 
*  Under  Heaven,'  was  Luther's  reply. 

To  Melancthon  Luther  wrote  as  follows :  '  There  is  no 
news  here,  except  that  the  town  is  full  of  talk  about  me, 
and  everybody  wants  to  see  the  man  who,  like  a  second 
Herostratus,  has  kindled  such  a  flame.  Eemain  a  man  as 
you  are,  and  instruct  the  youth  aright.  I  go  to  be  sacrificed 
for  them  and  for  you,  if  God  so  will.  For  I  will  rather  die, 
and,  what  is  the  hardest  fate,  lose  for  ever  the  sweet  inter- 
course with  you,  than  revoke  anything  that  it  was  right  for 
me  to  say.' 

On  October  11  Luther  received  the  letter  of  safe- 
conduct,  and  the  next  day  he  appeared  before  Caietan. 
Humbly,  as  he  had  been  advised,  he  prostrated  himself 
before  the  representative  of  the  Pope,  who  received  him 
graciously  and  bade  him  rise. 

The  Cardinal  addressed  him  civilly,  and  with  a  courtesy 
Luther  was  not  accustomed  to  meet  with  from  his  opponents ; 
but  he  immediately  demanded  him,  in  the  name  and  by 
command  of  the  Pope,  to  retract  his  errors,  and  promise  in 
future  to  abstain  from  them  and  from  everything  that  might 
disturb  the  peace  of  the  Church.  He  pointed  out,  in  par- 
ticular, two  errors  in  his  theses ;   namely,  that  the  Church's 


LUTHER  AT  AUGSBURG  BEFORE   CAIETAN.     115 

treasure  of  indulgences  did  not  consist  of  the  merits  of  Christ, 
and  that  faith  on  the  part  of  the  recipient  was  necessary 
for  the  efficacy  01  the  sacrament.  With  respect  to  the 
second  point,  the  rehgious  principles  upon  which  Luther 
based  his  doctrine  were  altogether  strange  and  unintelligible 
to  the  Scholastic  standpoint  of  Caietan ;  mere  tittering  and 
laughter  followed  Luther's  observations,  and  he  was  required 
to  retract  this  thesis  unconditionally.  The  first  point 
settled  the  question  of  Papal  authority.  On  this,  the 
Cardinal-legate  took  his  chief  stand  on  the  express  declara- 
tion of  Pope  Clement :  he  could  not  believe  that  Luther 
would  venture  to  resist  a  Papal  bull,  and  thought  he  had 
probably  not  read  it.  He  read  him  a  vigorous  lecture  of 
his  own  on  the  paramount  authority  of  the  Pope  over 
Council,  Church,  and  Scripture.  As  to  any  argument, 
however,  about  the  theses  to  be  retracted,  Caietan  refused 
from  the  first  to  engage  in  it,  and  undoubtedly  he  went 
further  in  that  direction  than  he  originally  desired  or 
intended.  His  sole  wish  was,  as  he  said,  to  give  fatherly 
correction,  and  with  fatherly  friendliness  to  arrange  the 
matter.  But  in  reality,  says  Luther,  it  was  a  blunt,  naked, 
unyielding  display  of  power.  Luther  could  only  beg  from 
him  further  time  for  consideration. 

Luther's  friends  at  Augsburg,  and  Staupitz,  who  had 
just  arrived  there,  now  attempted  to  divert  the  course  of 
these  proceedings,  to  collect  other  decisions  of  importance 
bearing  on  the  subject,  and  to  give  him  the  opportunity  of 
a  public  vindication.  Accompanied  therefore  by  several 
jurists  friendly  to  his  cause,  and  by  a  notary  and  Staupitz, 
he  laid  before  the  legate  next  day  a  short  and  formal  state- 
ment of  defence.  He  could  not  retract  unless  convicted 
of  error,  and  to  all  that  he  had  .said  he  must  hold  as 
being  Catholic  truth.  Nevertheless  he  was  only  human, 
and  therefore  fallible,  and  he  was  willing  to  submit  to  a 
legitimate  decision  of  the  Church.  He  offered,  at  the  same 
time,  publicly  to  justify  his  theses,  and  he  was  rsady  to 

I  2 


ii6  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

hear  the  judgment  of  the  learned  doctors  of  Basle,  Freiburg, 
Louvain,  and  even  Paris  upon  them.  Caietan  with  a  smile 
dismissed  Luther  and  his  proposals,  but  consented  to  re- 
ceive a  more  detailed  reply  in  writing  to  the  principal  points 
discussed  on  the  previous  day. 

On  the  morrow,  October  14,  Luther  brought  his  reply 
to  the  legate.  But  in  this  document  also  he  insisted  clearly 
and  resolutely  from  the  commencement  on  those  very  prin- 
ciples which  his  opponents  regarded  as  destructive  of  all 
ecclesiastical  authority  and  of  the  foundations  of  Christian 
belief.  He  spoke  with  crucial  emphasis  of  the  trouble  he 
had  taken  to  interpret  the  words  of  Pope  Clement  in  a 
Scriptural  sense.  The  Papal  decrees  might  err,  and  be  at 
variance  with  Holy  Writ.  Even  the  Apostle  Peter  himself 
had  once  to  be  reproved  (Galat.  ii.  11  sqq.)  for  *  walking  not 
uprightly  according  to  the  truth  of  the  gospel ; '  surely 
then  his  successor  was  not  infallible.  Every  faithful 
believer  in  Christ  was  superior  to  the  Pope,  if  he  could 
show  better  proofs  and  grounds  of  his  belief.  Still  he 
entreated  Caietan  to  intercede  with  Leo  X.,  that  the  latter 
might  not  harshly  thrust  out  into  darkness  his  soul,  which 
was  seeking  for  the  light.  But  he  repeated  that  he  could  do 
nothing  against  his  conscience :  one  must  obey  God  rather 
than  man,  and  he  had  the  fullest  confidence  that  he  had 
Scripture  on  his  side.  Caietan,  to  whom  he  delivered  this 
reply  in  person,  once  more  tried  to  persuade  him.  They 
fell  into  a  lively  and  vehement  argument ;  but  Caietan  cut 
it  short  with  the  exclamation  *  Eevoke.'  In  the  event  of 
Luther  not  revoking  or  submitting  to  judgment  at  Kome, 
he  threatened  him  and  all  his  friends  with  excommunication, 
and  whatever  place  he  might  go  to  with  an  interdict ;  he 
had  a  mandate  from  the  Pope  to  that  effect  already  in  his 
hands.  He  then  dismissed  him  with  the  words,  *  Kevoke, 
or  do  not  come  again  into  my  presence.' 

Nevertheless  he  spoke  in  quite  a  friendly  manner  after 
this  to    Staupitz,   urging  him  to  try  his  best  to  convert 


LUTHER  AT  AUGSBURG  BEFORE   CAIETAN.      117 

Luther,  whom  he  wished  well.  Luther,  however,  wrote  the 
same  day  to  his  friend  Spalatin,  who  was  with  the  Elector, 
and  to  his  friends  at  Wittenberg,  telling  them  that  he  had 
refused  to  yield.  The  legate,  he  said,  had  behaved  with  all 
friendliness  of  manner  to  Staupitz  in  his  affair,  but  neither 
Staupitz  nor  himself  trusted  the  Italian  when  out  of  sight. 
If  Caietan  should  use  force  against  him,  he  would  publish 
the  written  reply  he  gave  him.  Caietan  might  call  himself 
a  Thomist,  but  he  was  a  muddle-headed,  ignorant  theologian 
and  Christian,  and  as  clumsy  in  giving  judgment  in  the  mat- 
ter as  a  donkey  with  a  harp.  Luther  added  further  that 
an  appeal  would  be  drawn  up  for  him  in  the  form  best 
fitted  to  the  occasion.  He  further  hinted  to  his  Wittenberg 
friends  at  the  possibility  of  his  having  to  go  elsewhere 
in  exile ;  indeed,  his  friends  already  thought  of  taking  him 
to  Paris,  where  the  university  still  rejected  the  doctrine 
of  Papal  absolutism.  He  concluded  this  letter  by  saying 
that  he  refused  to  become  a  heretic  by  denying  that  which 
had  made  him  a  Christian ;  sooner  than  do  that,  he  would 
be  burned,  exiled,  or  cursed. 

The  appeal  of  which  Luther  here  spoke,  was  *  from  the 
Pope  ill-informed  to  the  same  when  better  informed.'  On 
October  16  he  submitted  it,  formally  prepared,  to  a  public 
notary.  While  Staupitz  and  Link,  warned  to  consult  their 
personal  safety,  and  despairing  of  any  good  result,  left 
Augsburg,  Luther  still  remained  there.  He  even  addressed 
on  October  17  a  letter  to  Caietan,  conceding  to  him  the 
utmost  he  thought  possible.  Moved,  as  he  said,  by  the 
persuasions  of  his  dear  father  Staupitz  and  his  brother 
Link,  he  offered  to  let  the  whole  question  of  indulgences 
rest,  if  only  that  which  drove  him  to  this  tragedy  were 
put  a  stop  to ;  he  confessed  also  to  having  been  too  violent 
and  disrespectful  in  dispute.  In  after  years  he  said  to  his 
friends,  when  referring  to  this  concession,  that  God  had 
never  allowed  him  to  sink  deeper  than  when  he  had  yielded 
so  much.     The  next  day,  however,  he  gave  notice  of  his 


ii8  THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

appeal  to  the  legate,  and  told  him  he  did  not  wish  longer  to 
waste  his  time  in  Augsburg.  To  this  letter  he  received  no 
answer. 

Luther  waited,  however,  till  the  20th.  He  and  his 
Augsburg  patrons  began  to  suspect  whether  measures  had 
not  already  been  taken  to  detain  him.  They  therefore  had 
a  small  gate  in  the  city  wall  opened  in  the  night,  and  sent 
with  him  an  escort  well  acquainted  with  the  road.  Thus 
he  hastened  away,  as  he  himself  described  it,  on  a  hard- 
trotting  hack,  in  a  simple  monk's  frock,  with  only  knee- 
breeches,  without  boots  or  spurs,  and  unarmed.  On  the 
first  day  he  rode  eight  miles,  as  far  as  the  little  town  of 
Monheim.  As  he  entered  in  the  evening  an  inn  and  dis- 
mounted in  the  stable,  he  was  unable  to  stand  from  fatigue, 
and  fell  down  instantly  among  the  straw.  He  travelled 
thus  on  horseback  to  Wittenberg,  where  he  arrived  well 
and  joyful,  on  the  anniversary  of  his  ninety-five  theses.  He 
had  heard  on  the  way  of  the  Pope's  brief  to  Caietan,  but 
he  refused  to  think  it  could  be  genuine.  His  appeal,  mean- 
while, was  delivered  to  the  Cardinal  at  Augsburg,  who  had 
it  posted  by  his  notary  on  the  doors  of  the  cathedral. 

From  Augsburg  Luther  was  followed  by  a  letter  from 
Caietan  to  the  Elector,  full  of  bitter  complaints  against 
him.  He  had  formed,  he  said,  the  highest  hopes  of  his 
spiritual  recovery,  and  had  been  grievously  disappointed  in 
him ;  the  Elector,  for  his  own  honour  and  conscience'  sake, 
must  now  either  send  him  to  Rome  or,  at  least,  expel  him 
from  his  territory,  since  measures  of  fatherly  kindness 
had  failed  to  make  him  acknowledge  his  error.  Frederick, 
after  waiting  four  weeks,  returned  a  quiet  answer,  showing 
how  the  conduct  of  Luther  quite  agreed  with  his  own  view 
of  the  matter.  He  would  have  expected  that  no  recantation 
would  have  been  required  of  Luther  till  the  matter  in 
dispute  had  been  satisfactorily  examined  and  explained. 
There  were  a  number  of  learned  men,  also,  at  foreign 
universities,  from  whom  he  could  not  yet  have  learned  with 


I 


LUTHER  AT  AUGSBURG   BEFORE   CAIETAN.      119 

certainty  that  Luther's  doctrine  was  unchristian ;  while,  to 
say  the  least,  it  was  chiefly  those  whose  personal  and 
financial  interests  were  affected  by  it  that  had  become  his 
opponents.  He  would  propose  therefore  that  the  judgment 
of  several  universities  should  be  obtained,  and  have  the 
matter  disputed  at  a  safe  place.  Luther,  however,  to  whom 
the  Elector  showed  this  letter,  at  once  declared  himself 
ready  to  go  into  exile,  but  would  not  be  deterred  from  publish- 
ing new  declarations  or  taking  further  steps. 

He  had  a  report  of  his  conference  with  Caietan  printed, 
with  a  justification  of  himself  to  the  readers.  And  in  this 
he  advanced  propositions  against  the  Papacy  which  entirely 
shook  its  whole  foundation.  Already,  in  the  solutions  to 
his  theses,  he  had  incidentally,  and  without  attracting 
further  notice  by  the  remark,  spoken  of  a  time  when  the 
Papacy  had  not  yet  acquired  supremacy  over  the  Universal 
Church,  thereby  contradicting  what  the  Eomish  Church 
maintained  and  had  made  into  a  «dogma,  namely,  that  the 
Papal  see  possessed  this  primacy  by  original  institution 
through  Christ,  and  by  means  of  immutable  Divine  right. 
He  now  expressed  this  opinion  as  a  positive  proposition 
The  Papal  monarchy,  he  declared,  was  only  a  Divine  institu- 
tion in  the  sense  in  which  every  temporal  power,  advanced 
by  the  progress  of  historical  development,  might  be  called 
so  also,    '  The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  observation.' 

Without   waiting    for   an   answer    direct    from    Kome,^ 
Luther  now  abandoned  all  thoughts  of  success  with  Leo  X. 
On  November  28  he  formally  and  solemnly  appealed  from 
the  Pope  to  a  General  Christian  Council.     By  so  doing  he 
anticipated  the  sentence  of  excommunication  which  he  was  I 
daily  expecting.     With  Eome  he  had  broken  for  ever,  unless|[ 
she  were  to  surrender  her  claims  and  acquisitions  of  moreJ 
than  a  thousand  years.  ' 

After  once  the  first  restraints  of  awe  were  removed  with 
which  Luther  had  regarded  the  Papacy,  behind  and  beyond 
the  matter  of  the  indulgences,  and  he  had  learned  to  know 


I20  THE   BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

the  Papal  representative  at  Augsburg,  and  made  a  stand 
against  his  demands  and  menaces,  and  escaped  from  his 
dangerous  clutches,  he  enjoyed  for  the  first  time  the  fearless 
consciousness  of  freedom.  He  took  a  wider  survey  around 
him,  and  saw  plainly  the  deej)  corruption  and  ungodliness 
•of  the  powers  arrayed  against  him.  His  mind  was  impelled 
forward  with  more  energy  as  his  spirit  for  the  fight  was 
stirred  within  him.  Even  the  prospect  that  he  might  have 
to  fly,  and  the  uncertainty  whither  his  flight  could  be,  did 
not  daunt  or  deter  him.  His  thought  was  how  he  could 
throw  himself  with  more  freedom  into  the  struggle,  if  no 
longer  hampered  by  any  obligations  to  his  prince  and  his 
university.  Writing  at  that  time  to  his  friend  Link,  to 
inform  him  of  his  new  publications  and  his  appeal,  he 
invited  his  opinion  as  to  whether  he  was  not  right  in 
saying  that  the  Antichrist  of  whom  St.  Paul  speaks  (2  Thess. 
ii.),  ruled  at  the  Papal  court.  'My  pen,'  he  went  on  to 
say,  *  is  already  giving  birth  to  something  much  greater. 
I  know  not  whence  these  thoughts  come.  The  work,  as 
far  as  I  can  see,  has  hardly  yet  begun,  so  little  reason  have 
the  great  men  at  Rome  for  hoping  it  is  finished.'  Again, 
while  informing  Spalatin,  through  whom  the  Elector  always 
urged  him  to  moderation,  of  new  Papal  edicts  and  regula- 
tions aimed  against  him,  he  declared,  *  The  more  those 
Romish  grandees  rage  and  meditate  the  use  of  force,  the 
less  do  I  fear  them.  All  the  more  free  shall  I  become  to 
fight  against  the  serpents  of  Rome.  I  am  prepared  for  all, 
and  await  the  judgment  of  God.' 

He  was  really  prepared  for  exile  or  flight  at  any  moment. 
At  Wittenberg  his  friends  were  alarmed  by  rumours  of 
designs  on  the  part  of  the  Pope  against  his  life  and  liberty, 
and  insisted  on  his  being  placed  in  safety.  Flight  to  France 
was  continually  talked  of ;  had  he  not  followed  in  his  appeal 
a  precedent  set  by  the  university  of  Paris  ?  We  certainly 
cannot  see  how  he  could  safely  have  been  conveyed  thither, 
or  where,  indeed,  any  other  and  safer  place  could  have  been 


Lb  THE  F  AT  AUGSBURG   BEFORE   C AI  ET  AN.      121 

found  for  him.  Some  urged  that  the  Elector  himself  should 
take  him  into  custody  and  keep  him  in  a  place  of  safety, 
and  then  write  to  the  legate  that  he  held  him  seourely  in 
confinement  and  was  in  future  responsible  for  him.  Luther 
proposed  this  to  Spalatin,  and  added,  '  I  leave  the  decision 
of  this  matter  to  your  discretion;  I  am  in  the  hands  of 
God  and  of  my  friends.'  The  Elector  himself,  anxious  also 
in  this  respect,  arranged  early  in  December  a  confidential 
interview  between  Luther  and  Spalatin  at  the  Castle  of 
Lichtenberg.  He  also,  as  Luther  reported  to  Staupitz, 
wished  that  Luther  had  some  other  place  to  be  in,  but  he 
advised  him  against  going  away  so  hastily  to  France.  His 
own  wish  and  counsel,  however,  he  refrained  as  yet  from 
making  known.  Luther  declared  that  at  all  events,  if  a 
ban  of  excommunication  were  to  come  from  Eome,  he  would 
not  remain  longer  at  Wittenberg.  On  this  point  also  the 
prince  kept  secret  his  resolve. 


THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME, 


CHAPTER  IV. 

MILTITZ    AND    THE    DISPUTATION    AT    LEIPZIG,    WITH    IP 
RESULTS. 

The  rumours  of  the  dangers  that  threatened  Luther  from 
Rome  had  a  good  foundation.  A  new  agent  from  there 
had  now  arrived  in  Germany,  the  Papal  chamberlain, 
Charles  von  Miltitz. 

His  errand  was  designed  to  remove  the  chief  obstacle  to 
summoning  the  Wittenberg  heretic  to  Rome,  or  imprison- 
ing him  there,  namely,  the  protection  afforded  him  by  his 
sovereign.  Miltitz  was  of  a  noble  Saxon  family,  himself  a 
Saxon  subject  by  birth,  and  a  friend  of  the  Electoral  court. 
He  brought  with  him  a  high  token  of  favour  for  the  Elector. 
The  latter  had  formerly  expressed  a  wish  to  receive  the 
golden  rose  ;  a  symbol  solemnly  consecrated  by  the  Pope 
himself,  and  bestowed  by  his  ambassadors  on  princely  per- 
sonages to  this  day,  for  services  rendered  to  the  Church  or 
the  Papal  see.  The  bearer  of  this  decoration  was  Miltitz, 
and  on  October  24,  1518,  he  was  furnished  with  a  whole 
armful  of  Papal  indulgences. 

Above  all,  he  took  with  him  two  letters  of  Leo  X.  to 
Frederick.  The  Elector,  his  beloved  son,  so  ran  the  first 
missive,  was  to  receive  the  most  holy  rose,  anointed  with  the 
sacred  chrism,  sprinkled  with  scented  musk,  consecrated 
with  the  Apostolic  blessing,  a  gift  of  transcendent  worth  and 
the  symbol  of  a  deep  mystery,  in  remembrance  and  as  a  pledge 
of  the  Pope's  paternal  love  and  singular  good-will,  conveyed 
through  an  ambassador  specially  appointed  by  the  Pope, 
and  charged  with  particular  greetings  on  that  behalf  &c.  &c. 


MILTITZ  AND    THE  DISPUTATION  AT  LEIPZIG.    123 

Such  a  costly  gift,  proffered  him  by  the  Church  through  her 
Pontiif,  was  intended  to  manifest  her  joy  at  the  redemption 
of  mankind  by  the  precious  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
rose  was  an  appropriate  symbol  of  the  quickening  and 
refreshing  body  of  our  Eedeemer.  These  high-sounding 
and  long-winded  expressions  showed  very  plainly  the  real 
object  of  the  Pope.  The  divine  fragrance  of  this  flower  was 
so  to  permeate  the  inmost  heart  of  Frederick,  the  *  beloved 
son,'  that  he  being  filled  with  it,  might  with  pious  mind 
receive  and  cherish  in  his  noble  breast  those  matters  which 
Miltitz  would  explain  to  him,  and  whereof  the  second  brief 
made  mention ;  and  thus  the  more  fervently  comprehend 
the  Pope's  holy  and  pious  longing,  agreeably  to  the  hope  he 
placed  in  him.  The  other  letter,  however,  after  referring 
to  the  call  for  aid  against  the  Turks,  goes  on  to  speak  of 
Luther.  From  Satan  himself  came  this  son  of  perdition, 
who  was  preaching  notorious  heresy,  and  that  chiefly  in 
Frederick's  own  land.  Inasmuch  as  this  diseased  sheep 
must  not  be  suffered  to  infect  the  heavenly  flock,  and  as 
the  honour  and  conscience  of  the  Elector  also  must  needs 
be  stained  by  his  presence,  Miltitz  was  commissioned  to 
take  measures  against  him  and  his  associates,  and  Frederick 
was  exhorted  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  to  assist  him  with  his 
authority  and  favour. 

Papal  instructions  in  writing  to  the  same  effect  were 
given  to  Miltitz  for  Spalatin,  as  Frederick's  private  secretary, 
and  for  Degenhard  Pfeffinger,  a  counsellor  of  the  Elector. 
To  Spalatin  in  particular,  the  most  trusted  adviser  of 
Frederick  in  religious  matters,  it  was  represented,  how 
horrible  was  the  heretical  audacity  of  this  '  son  of  Satan,' 
and  how  he  imperilled  the  good  name  of  the  Elector.  In 
like  manner  the  chief  magistrate  of  Wittenberg  was  re- 
quired by  letter  to  give  assistance  to  Miltitz,  and  enable 
him  to  execute  freely  and  unhindered  the  Pope's  commands 
against  the  heretic  Luther,  who  came  of  the  devil.  Miltitz 
took  with  him  similar  injunctions  for  a  number  of  other 


124  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

towns  in  Germany,  to  ensure  safe  passage  for  himself  and 
his  prisoner  to  Rome,  in  the  event  of  his  arresting  Luther. 
He  was  armed,  it  was  said,  with  no  less  than  seventy  letters 
of  this  kind. 

As  regards  the  rose,  Miltitz  had  strict  orders  to  make 
the  actual  delivery  of  it  to  Frederick  depend  wholly  on  his 
compliance  with  Caietan's  advice  and  will.  It  was  deposited 
first  of  all  in  the  mercantile  house  of  the  Fuggers  at  Augs- 
burg. This  public  precaution  was  taken,  to  prevent  Miltitz 
from  parting  with  the  precious  gift  in  haste  or  from  too 
anxious  a  desire  for  the  thanks  and  praise  in  prospect, 
before  there  were  reasonable  grounds  for  hoping  that  it  had 
served  its  purpose. 

Towards  the  middle  of  December  a  Papal  bull,  issued  on 
November  9,  was  published  by  Caietan  in  Germany,  which 
finally  laid  down  the  doctrine  of  indulgences  in  the  sense 
directly  combated  by  Luther,  and,  although  not  mentioning 
him  by  name,  threatened  excommunication  against  all  who 
shared  the  errors  which  had  lately  been  promulgated  in 
certain  quarters. 

So  utterly  did  the  Pope  appear  to  have  set  his  face 
against  all  reconciliation  or  compromise.  And  yet,  as  the 
event  showed,  room  was  left  for  Miltitz  in  his  secret 
instructions  to  try  another  method,  according  as  circum- 
stances might  dictate. 

Miltitz,  after  having  crossed  the  Alps,  sought  an  inter- 
view first  with  Caietan  in  Southern  Germany,  and,  as  the 
latter  had  gone  to  the  Emperor  in  Austria,  he  paid  a  visit 
to  his  old  friend  Pfeffinger,  at  his  home  in  Bavaria.  Con- 
tinuing his  journey  with  him,  he  arrived  on  December  25 
at  the  town  of  Gera,  and  from  there  announced  his  arrival 
to  Spalatin,  who  was  at  Altenburg.  On  the  way  he  had  had 
constant  opportunities  of  noticing,  both  among  learned  men 
and  the  common  people,  signs  of  sympathy  for  the  man 
against  whom  his  mission  was  directed,  and  a  feeling  hostile 
to  Rome,  of  which  those  at  Rome  neither  knew  nor  cared 


fuNM/BRSI'] 

MILTITZ  AND  THE  DISPUTATION  a\lEJPZIG..  ,125 

to  know.  He  was  a  young  and  clever  man,  full  of  the 
enjoyment  of  life,  who  knew  how  to  mix  and  converse  with 
people  of  every  kind,  and  even  to  touch  now  and  then  on 
the  situation  and  doings  at  Eome  which  were  exciting  such 
lively  indignation.  Tetzel  also,  whom  Miltitz  summoned  to 
meet  him,  wrote  complaining  that  the  people  in  Germany 
were  so  excited  against  him  by  Luther,  that  his  life  would 
not  be  safe  on  the  road.  Miltitz  accordingly,  with  his  usual 
readiness,  resolved  speedily  on  an  attempt  to  make  Luther 
harmless  by  other  means.  After  paying  his  visit  to  the 
Elector  at  Altenburg,  he  agreed  to  treat  with  him  there  in 
a  friendly  manner. 

The  remarkable  interview  with  Luther  took  place  at 
Spalatin's  house  at  Altenburg  in  the  first  week  of  the  new 
year.  Miltitz  feigned  the  utmost  frankness  and  friendliness, 
nay,  even  cordiality.  He  himself  declared  to  Luther,  that 
for  the  last  hundred  years  no  business  had  caused  so  much 
trouble  at  Eome  as  this  one,  and  that  they  would  gladly 
there  give  ten  thousand  ducats  to  prevent  its  going  further. 
He  described  the  state  of  popular  feeling  as  he  had  found  it 
on  his  journey ;  three  were  for  Luther  where  only  one  was 
for  the  Pope.  He  would  not  venture,  even  with  an  escort 
of  25,000  men,  to  carry  off  Luther  through  Germany  to 
Eome.  '  Oh,  Martin  !  '  he  exclaimed,  '  I  thought  you  were 
some  old  theologian,  who  had  carried  on  his  disputations 
with  himself,  in  his  warm  corner  behind  the  stove.  Now  I 
see  how  young,  and  fresh,  and  vigorous  you  are.'  Whilst 
plying  him  with  exhortations  and  reproaches  about  the  in- 
jury he  did  to  the  Eomish  Church,  he  accompanied  them 
with  tears.  He  fancied  by  this  means  to  make  him  his 
confidant  and  conformable  to  his  schemes. 

Luther,  however,  soon  showed  him  that  he  could  be  his 
match  in  cleverness.  He  refrained,  he  tells  us,  from  letting 
Miltitz  see  that  he  was  aware  what  crocodile's  tears  they 
were.  Indeed  he  was  quite  prepared,  as  he  had  been  before 
under  the  menaces  of  a  Papal  ambassador,  so  now  under 


126  THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

riis  persuasions  and  entreaties,  to  yield  all  that  his  conscience 
allowed,  but  nothing  beyond,  and  then  quietly  to  let  matters 
take  their  own  course. 

In  the  everil  of  Miltitz  withdrawing  his  demand  for  a 
retractation,  Luther  agreed  to  write  a  letter  to  the  Pope, 
acknowledging  that  he  had  been  too  hasty  and  severe,  and 
promising  to  publish  a  declaration  to  German  Christendom 
urging  and  admonishing  reverence  to  the  Eomish  Church. 
His  cause,  and  the  charges  brought  against  him,  might  be 
tried  before  a  German  bishop,  but  he  reserved  to  himself 
the  right,  in  case  the  judgment  should  be  unacceptable,  of 
reviving  his  appeal  to  the  Church  in  Council.  Personally 
he  desired  to  desist  from  further  strife,  but  silence  must 
also  be  imposed  on  his  adversaries. 

Having  come  to  this  point  of  agreement,  they  partook  of 
a  friendly  supper  together,  and  on  parting  Miltitz  bestowed 
on  him  a  kiss. 

In  a  report  given  of  this  conference  to  the  Elector, 
Luther  expressed  the  hope  that  the  matter  by  mutual  silence 
might  *  bleed  itself  to  death,'  but  added  his  fear  that,  if  the 
contest  were  prolonged,  the  question  w^ould  grow  larger  and 
become  serious. 

He  now  wrote  his  promised  address  to  the  people.  He 
bated  not  an  inch  from  his  standpoint,  so  that,  even  if  he 
should  for  the  future  let  the  controversy  rest,  he  might  not 
appear  to  have  retracted  anything.  He  allowed  a  value  to 
indulgences,  but  only  as  a  recompense  for  the  '  satisfaction  ' 
given  by  the  sinner,  and  adding  that  it  was  better  to  do 
good  than  to  purchase  indulgences.  He  urged  the  duty  of 
holding  fast  in  Christian  love  and  unity,  and  notwithstand- 
ing her  faults  and  sins,  to  the  Eomish  Church,  in  which  St. 
Peter  and  St.  Paul  and  hundreds  of  martyrs  had  shed  their 
blood,  and  of  submitting  to  her  authority,  though  with 
reference  only  to  external  matters.  Propositions,  going  be- 
yond what  was  here  conceded  he  wished  to  be  regarded  as 
in  no  way  affecting  the  people  or  the  common  man.     They 


MILTITZ  AND  THE  DISPUTATION  AT  LEIPZIG      127 

should  be  left,  he  said,  to  the  schools  of  theology,  and 
learned  men  might  fight  the  matter  out  between  them. 
His  opponents  indeed,  if  they  had  admitted  what  Luther 
declared  in  this  address,  would  have  had  to  abandon  their 
main  prmciples,  for  to  them  the  doctrine  that  indulgences  and 
Church  authority  meant  far  more  than  was  here  stated  was 
a  truth  indispensable  for  salvation. 

Luther  wrote  his  letter  to  the  Pope  on  March  3,  1519. 
It  began  with  expressions  of  the  deepest  personal  humility, 
but  differed  significantly  in  the  quiet  firmness  of  its  tone 
from  his  other  letter  of  the  previous  year  to  Leo  X.  Quietly, 
but  as  resolutely,  he  repudiated  all  idea  of  retracting  his  prin- 
ciples. They  had  already,  through  the  opposition  raised  by 
his  enemies,  been  propagated  far  and  wide,  beyond  all  his 
expectations,  and  had  sunk  into  the  hearts  of  the  Germans, 
whose  knowledge  and  judgmen.  were  now  more  matured. 
If  he  let  himself  be  forced  to  retract  them  he  would 
give  occasion  to  accusation  and  revilement  against  the 
Komish  Church ;  for  the  sake  of  her  own  honour  he  must 
refuse  to  do  so.  As  for  his  battle  against  indulgences,  his 
only  thought  had  been  to  prevent  the  Mother  Church  from 
being  defiled  by  foreign  avarice,  and  that  the  people  should 
not  be  led  astray,  but  learn  to  se.  love  before  indulgences. 

Meanwhile,  on  January  12,  Maximilian  had  died.  He 
was  the  last  national  Emperor  with  whom  Germany  was 
blessed  ;  in  character  a  true  German,  endowed  with  rich  gifts 
both  mental  and  physical,  a  man  of  high  courage  and  a 
warm  heart,  thoroughly  understanding  how  to  deal  with 
high  and  low,  and  to  win  their  esteem  and  love.  By  Luther 
too  we  hear  him  often  spoken  of  afterwards  in  terms  of  affec- 
tionate remembrance  :  he  tells  us  of  his  kindness  and  courtesy 
to  everyone,  of  his  efforts  to  attract  around  him  trusty  and 
capable  servants  from  all  ranks,  of  his  apt  remarks,  of  his 
tact  in  jest  and  in  earnest ;  further  of  the  troubles  he  had 
in  his  government  of  the  Empire  and  with  his  princes,  of 
the  insolence  he  had  to  put  up  with  from  the  Italians,  and  of 


128 


THE   BREACH   WITH  ROME. 


the  humour  with  which  he  speaks  of  himself  and  his 
imperial  rule.  '  Grod,'  said  he  on  one  occasion,  '  has  Avell 
ordered  the  temporal  and  spiritual  government ;  the  former 


Fig.  13.— The  EirPEROR  Maximilian.     (From  his  Portrait  by  Albert  Dürer.) 


is  ruled  over  by  a  chamois-hunter,  and  the  latter  by  a 
drunken  priest '  (Pope  Julius).  He  called  himself  a  king  of 
kings,  because  his  German  princes  only  acted   like   kings 


MILTITZ  AND  THE  DISPUTA  TION  A  T  LEIPZIG.     129 

when  it  suited  them.  With  the  lofty  ideas  and  projects  which 
he  cherished  as  sovereign,  he  stood  before  the  people  as  a 
worthy  representative  of  Imperialism,  even  though  his  eyes 
may  have  been  fixed  in  reality  more  on  his  own  family  and 
the  power  of  his  dynasty,  than  on  the  general  interests  of 
the  Empire.  The  ecclesiastical  grievances  of  the  German 
nation,  which  we  heard  of  at  the  Diet  of  1518,  had  long 
engaged  his  lively  sympathy,  though  he  deemed  it  wiser  to 
abstain  from  interfering.  He  had  an  opinion  on  these 
matters  and  on  the  necessary  reforms  drawn  up  by  the 
Humanist  Wimpheling.  Nay,  he  had  once,  in  his  contest 
with  Pope  Julius,  worked  to  bring  about  a  general  reforming 
Council.  The  question  forces  itself  on  the  mind — however 
vain  such  an  inquiry  may  be  from  a  historical  point  of 
view — what  turn  Luther's  great  work,  and  the  fortunes  of 
the  German  nation  and  Cliurch  would  have  taken,  if  Maxi- 
milian had  identified  his  own  imperial  projects  with  the 
interests  for  which  Luther  contended,  and  thus  had  come 
forward  as  the  leader  of  a  great  national  movement.  As  it 
was,  Maximilian  died  without  ever  having  realised  more  of 
the  importance  of  this  monk  than  was  shown  by  his  remark 
about  him,  already  noticed,  at  Augsburg. 

His  death  served  to  increase  the  respect  which  the  Pope 
found  it  necessary  to  show  to  the  Elector  Frederick.  For, 
pending  the  election  of  a  new  Emperor,  the  latter  was 
Administrator  of  the  Empire  for  Northern  Germany,  and 
the  issue  of  the  election  depended  largely  on  his  influence. 
On  June  28  Maximilian's  grandson.  King  Charles  of  Spain, 
then  nineteen  years  of  age,  was  chosen  Emperor.  He  was 
a  stranger  to  German  hfe  and  customs,  as  the  German 
people  and  the  Keformer  must  constantly  have  had  to  feel. 
For  the  Pope,  however,  these  considerations  were  of  further 
import,  for  in  his  dealings  with  the  new  Emperor  he  had  to 
proceed  at  least  with  caution,  since  the  latter  was  aware 
that  he  had  done  his  best  to  prevent  his  election.  On  the 
other  hand,  Charles  was  under  an  obligation  to  the  Elector, 

K 


I30  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

being  mainly  indebted  to  him  for  his  crown,  and  unable  to 
come  himself  immediately  to  Germany  to  accept  his  rule. 

Miltitz  meanwhile  had  further  prosecuted  his  scheme, 
without  revealing  his  own  ultimate  object.  He  chose  for  a 
judge  of  Luther's  cause  the  Archbishop  of  Treves,  and 
persuaded  him  to  accept  the  office.  Early  in  May  he  had 
an  interview  with  Caietan  at  Coblentz,  the  chief  town  of  the 
archiepiscopal  diocese,  and  now  summoned  Luther  to  appear 
there  before  the  Archbishop. 

But  Miltitz  took  good  care  to  say  nothing  about  the  opin- 
ions entertained  at  Eome  of  his  negotiations  with  Luther. 
Would  Luther  venture  from  his  refuge  at  Wittenberg 
without  the  consent  of  his  faithful  sovereign,  who  himself 
evinced  suspicion  in  the  matter,  and  set  forth  in  the  dark,  so 
to  speak,  on  his  long  journey  to  the  two  ambassadors  of  the 
Pope  ?  He  would  be  held  a  fool,  he  wrote  to  Miltitz,  if  he 
did  ;  moreover,  he  did  not  know  wehere  to  find  the  money 
for  the  journey.  What  took  place  between  Eome  and 
Miltitz  in  this  affair  was  altogether  unknown  to  Luther,  as 
it  is  to  us. 

Whilst  this  attempt  at  a  mediation  — if  such  it  could  be 
called— remained  thus  in  abeyance,  a  serious  occasion  of 
strife  had  been  prepared,  which  caused  the  seemingly 
muffled  storm  to  break  out  with  all  its  violence. 

Luther's  colleague,  Carlstadt,  who  at  first,  on  the 
appearance  of  Luther's  theses,  had  viewed  them  with 
anxiety,  but  who  afterwards  espoused  the  new  Wittenberg 
theology,  and  pressed  forward  in  that  path,  had  had  a 
literary  feud  since  1518  with  Eck,  on  account  of  his  attacks 
upon  Luther.  The  latter,  meeting  Eck  at  Augsburg  in 
October,  arranged  with  him  for  a  public  disputation  in 
which  Eck  and  Carlstadt  could  fight  the  matter  out. 
Luther  hoped,  as  he  told  Eck  and  his  friends,  that  there 
might  be  a  worthy  battle  for  the  truth,  and  the  world  should 
then  see  that  theologians  could  not  only  dispute  but  come 
to  an  agreement.     Thus  then,  at  least  between  him  and 


MILTITZ  AND  THE  DISPUTATION  AT  LEIPZIG.   131 

Eck,  there  seemed  the  prospect  of  a  friendly  undertanding. 
The  university  of  Leipzig  was  chosen  as  the  scene  of  the 
disputation.  Duke  George  of  Saxony,  the  local  ruler,  gave 
his  consent,  and  rejected  the  protest  of  the  theological 
faculty,  to  whom  the  affair  seemed  very  critical. 

When,  however,  towards  the  end  of  the  year.  Eck  pub- 
lished the  theses  which  he  intended  to  defend,  Luther  found 
with  astonishment  that  they  dealt  with  cardinal  points  of 
doctrine,  which  he  himself,  rather  than  Carlstadt,  had 
maintained,  and  that  Carlstadt  was  expressly  designated  the 
*  champion  of  Luther.'  Only  one  of  these  theses  related 
to  a  doctrine  specially  defended  by  Carlstadt,  namely,  that  of 
the  subjection  of  the  will  in  sinful  man.  Among  the  other 
points  noticed  was  the  denial  of  the  primacy  of  the  Romish 
Church  during  the  first  few  centuries  after  Christ.  Eck 
had  extracted  this  from  Luther's  recent  publications ;  so 
far  as  Carlstadt  was  concerned,  he  could  not  have  read  or 
heard  a  word  of  such  a  statement. 

Luther  fired  up.  In  a  public  letter  addressed  to 
Carlstadt  he  observed  that  Eck  had  let  loose  against  him,  in 
reality,  the  frogs  or  flies  intended  for  Carlstadt,  and  he 
challenged  Eck  himself.  He  would  not  reproach  him  for 
having  so  maliciously,  uncourteously,  and  in  an  untheological 
manner  charged  Carlstadt  with  doctrines  to  which  he  was  a 
stranger ;  he  would  not  complain  of  being  drawn  himself 
again  into  the  contest  by  a  piece  of  base  flattery  on  Eck's 
part  towards  the  Pope ;  he  would  merely  show  that  his 
crafty  wiles  were  well  understood,  and  he  wished  to  exhort 
him  in  a  friendly  spirit,  for  the  future,  if  only  for  his  own 
reputation,  to  be  a  little  more  sensible  in  his  stratagems. 
Eck  might  then  ghd  his  sword  upon  his  thigh,  and  add  a 
Saxon  tri-umph  to  the  others  of  which  he  boasted,  and  so  at 
length  rest  on  his  laurels.  Let  him  bring  forth  to  the 
world  what  he  was  in  labour  of ;  let  him  disgorge  what  had 
long  been  lying  heavy  on  his  stomach,  and  bring  his  vain- 
glorious menaces  at  length  to  an  end. 

k2 


132  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

Luther  was  anxious,  indeed,  apart  from  this  special 
reason,  to  be  allowed  to  defend  in  a  public  disputation  the 
truth  for  which  he  was  called  a  heretic ;  he  had  made  this 
proposal  in  vain  to  the  legate  at  Augsburg.  He  now  de- 
'■  manded  to  be  admitted  to  the  lists  at  Leipzig.  He  wished 
in  particular,  to  take  up  the  contest,  openly  and  decisively, 
about  the  Papal  primacy. 

His  friends  just  on  this  point  grew  anxious  about  him. 
But  he  prepared  his  weapons  with  great  diligence,  studying 
thoroughly  the  ecclesiastical  law-books  and  the  history  of 
ecclesiastical  law,  with  which  until  now  he  had  never 
occupied  himself  so  much.  Herein  he  found  his  own  con- 
clusions fully  confirmed.  Nay,  he  found  that  the  tyranni- 
/cal  pretensions  of  the  Pope,  even  if  more  than  a  thousand 
/years  old,  derived  their  sole  and  ultimate  authority  from 
/  the  Papal  decretals  of  the  last  four  centuries.  Arrayed 
V  against  the  theory  of  that  primacy  were  the  history  of  the 
previous  centuries,  the  authority  of  the  Council  of  Nice  in 
325,  and  the  express  declaration  of  Scripture.  This  he 
stated  now  in  a  thesis,  and  announced  his  opinion  in  print. 

We  have  already  noticed  the  high  importance  of  this 
historical  evidence  in  regard  to  matters  of  belief,  as  well  as 
to  the  entire  conception  of  Christian  salvation,  and  of  the 
true  community  or  Church  of  Christ.  The  real  essence 
of  the  Church  is  shown  not  to  depend  on  its  constitution 
under  a  Pope.  And  the  course  of  history,  wherein  God 
allowed  the  Christians  of  the  West  to  come  under  the 
external  authority  of  the  Pope,  just  as  people  come  to  be 
under  the  rule  of  different  princes,  in  no  way  sub- 
jected, or  should  subject,  the  whole  of  Christendom  to  his 
»  dominion.  The  millions  of  Eastern  Christians,  who  are  not 
his  subjects,  and  who  are  therefore  condemned  by  the  Pope 
as  schismatics,  are  all,  as  Luther  now  distinctly  declares,  none 
the  less  members  of  Christendom,  of  the  Church,  of  the 
Body  of  Christ.  Participation  in  salvation  does  not  exist 
only   in   the   community   of   the   Church  of   Eome.     For 


u 

/a 


MILTITZ  AND  THE  DISPUTATION  AT  LEIPZIG.  133 

Christendom  collectively,  or  the  Universal  Church,  there  is 
no  other  Head  but  Christ.  Luther  now  also  discovered  and 
declared  that  the  bishops  did  not  receive  their  posts  over 
individual  dioceses  and  flocks  until  after  the  Apostolic 
period ;  the  episcopate  therefore  ceases  to  be  an  essential 
and  necessary  element  of  the  Church  system.  What,  then, 
is  really  essential  for  the  continuance  of  the  Church,  and 
how  far  does  it  extend  ?  Luther  answers  this  question  with 
the  fundamental  principle  of  Evangelical  Protestantism. 
The  Church,  he  says,  is  not  at  Eome  only,  but  there,  and\ 
there  only,  where  the  Word  of  God  is  preached  and  believed  ! 
in;  where  Christian  faith,  hope,  and  charity  are  alive,  where 
Christ,  inwardly  received,  stands  before  a  united  Christen- 
dom as  her  bridegroom.  This  Universal  Church,  says 
Luther,  is  the  one  intended  by  the  Creed,  when  it  says  *  I 
believe  in  a  Holy  Catholic  Church,  the  communion  of  saints.' 
The  mere  external  power  which  the  Popedom  exercised 
in  its  government  of  the  Church,  in  the  imposition  of  out- 
ward acts  and  penalties — appeared,  so  far,  to  Luther  a 
matter  of  indifference  in  respect  to  religion  and  the  salvation 
of  souls.  But  it  was  another  and  more  serious  matter? 
with  regard  to  the  claim  to  Divine  right  asserted  for  that 
power  by  the  Papacy,  and  to  its  extension  over  thp 
soul  and  conscience,  over  the  community  of  the  faithful, 
nay,  over  the  fate  of  departed  souls.  Here  Luther  saw  arf 
invasion  of  the  rights  reserved  by  God  to  Himself,  and  a 
perversion  of  the  true  conditions  of  salvation,  as  established 
by  Christ  and  testified  in  Scri23ture.  Here  he  saw  a  human 
potentate  and  tyrant,  setting  himself  up  in  the  place  of 
Christ  and  God.  He  shuddered,  so  he  wrote  to  his  friends, 
when,  in  reading  the  Papal  decretals,  he  looked  further  into 
the  doings  of  the  Popes,  with  their  demands  and  edicts, 
into  this  smithy  of  human  laws,  this  fresh  crucifixion 
of  Christ,  this  ill-treatment  and  contempt  of  His  people. 
As  previously  he  had  said  that  Antichrist  ruled  at  the 
Papal  court,  so  now,  in  a  letter  of  March  13,  1519,  he  wrote 


\ 


134 


THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 


(privately  to  Spalatin,  'I   know  not  whether   the   Pope  is 
Antichrist  himself,  or  one  of  his  Apostles,'  so  antichristian 


i^iG.  14. — Dui;^  UiiOKGE  OF  Saxoxy.     (I'lom  an  old  woodcut.) 


seemed  to  him  the  institution  of  the  Papacy  itself,  with  its 
principles   and  its   fruits.     Of  these  decretals  he  says  in 


MILTITZ  AND  THE  DISPUTATION  AT  LEIPZIG.  135 

another  letter:  'If  the  death-blow  dealt  to  indulgences 
has  so  damaged  the  see  of  Eome,  what  will  it  do  when,  by 
the  will  of  God,  its  decretals  have  to  breathe  their  last  ?  Not 
that  I  glory  in  victory,  trusting  to  my  own  strength,  but 
my  trust  is  in  the  mercy  of  God,  whose  wrath  is  against 
the  edicts  of  man.' 

Luther  earnestly  entreated  Duke  George  to  allow  him 
to  take  part  in  the  disputation.  His  Elector,  who  no  doubt 
was  personally  desirous  of  a  public,  free,  and  learned  treat- 
ment of  the  questions  at  issue,  had  already  given  him  his 
permission.  Luther's  understanding  with  Miltitz  presented 
no  obstacle,  since  the  silence  required  as  a  condition  on 
the  part  of  his  opponents,  had  never  been  observed,  nor 
indeed  had  ever  been  enjoined  or  recommended  either  by 
Miltitz  or  any  other  authorities  of  the  Church.  His  appli- 
cation, nevertheless,  to  the  Duke  was  referred  to  Eck  for  his 
concurrence,  and  the  latter  let  him  wait  in  vain  for  an  answer. 
At  last  the  Duke  drew  up  a  letter  of  safe-conduct  for  Carl- 
stadt  and  all  whom  he  might  bring  with  him,  and  under 
this  designation  Luther  was  included.  He  might  safely 
trust  himself  to  George's  word  as  a  man  and  a  prince. 

The  whole  disputation  w^as  opposed  and  protested  against 
from  the  outset  by  the  Bishop  of  Merseburg,  the  chancellor 
of  the  university  of  Leipzig  and  the  spiritual  head  of  the 
faculty  of  theology.  The  project  must  have  been  inad- 
missible in  his  eyes  from  the  mere  fact  that  Eck's  theses 
revived  the  controversy  about  indulgences,  which  was 
supposed  to  have  been  settled  once  and  fcr  ever  by  the 
Papal  bull.  He  appealed  to  this  pronouncement  as  a 
reason  for  not  holding  it.  Inasmuch  as  the  disputation 
took  place,  in  spite  of  this  protest,  with  the  Duke's  consent, 
it  became  an  affair  of  all  the  more  importance. 

Duke  George  himself  took  an  active  interest  in  the 
matter.  His  was  a  robust,  upright,  and  sturdy  character.  He 
was  a  staunch  and  faithful  upholder  of  the  ecclesiastical  tra- 
ditions in  w^hich  he  had  grown  up ;  it  was  difficult  for  him 


136  THE  BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

to  extend  his  views.  But  he  was  honestly  interested  in  the 
truth.  He  wished  that  his  own  men  of  learning  might 
have  a  good  scuffle  in  the  lists  for  the  truth's  sake.  On 
hearing  of  the  objections  of  the  Leipzig  theologians  to  the 
disputation,  his  remark  was,  '  They  are  evidently  afraid  to 
be  disturbed  in  their  idleness  and  guzzling,  and  think  that 
whenever  they  hear  a  shot  fired,  it  has  hit  them.'  An 
unusually  large  audience  being  expected  for  the  disputation, 
he  had  the  large  hall  of  his  Castle  of  Pleissenburg  cleared 
and  furnished  for  the  occasion.  He  commissioned  two  of  his 
counsellors  to  preside,  and  was  anxious  himself  to  be  present. 
How  much  depended  on  the  impression  which  the  disputa- 
tion itself,  and  Luther  with  it,  should  produce  upon  him  ! 

On  June  24  the  Wittenbergers  entered  Leipzig,  with 
Carlstadt  at  their  head.  An  eye-witness  has  described  the 
scene :  '  They  entered  at  the  Grimma  Gate,  and  their 
students,  two  hundred  in  number,  ran  beside  the  carriages 
with  pikes  and  halberds,  and  thus  accompanied  their 
professors.  Dr.  Carlstadt  drove  first ;  after  him.  Dr.  Martin 
and  Philip  (Melancthon)  in  a  light  basket  carriage  with 
solid  wooden  wheels  (Eollwagen)  ;  none  of  the  wagons  were 
either  curtained  or  covered.  Just  as  they  had  passed  the 
town-gate  and  had  reached  the  churchyard  of  St.  Paul,  DA 
Carlstadt 's  carriage  broke  down,  and  the  doctor  fell  out 
into  the  dirt ;  but  Dr.  Martin  and  his  fidus  Achates  Philip, 
drove  on.' .  Meanwhile,  an  episcopal  mandate,  forbidding  the 
disputation  on  pain  of  excommunication,  had  been  nailed 
up  on  the  church  doors,  but  no  heed  was  paid  to  it.  The 
magistrate  even  imprisoned  the  man  who  posted  the  bill 
for  having  done  so  without  his  permission. 

Before  commencing  the  disputation,  certain  preliminary 
conditions  were  arranged.  The  proceedings  were  to  be 
taken  down  by  notaries.  Eck  had  opposed  this,  fearing  to  be 
hindered  in  the  free  use  of  his  tongue,  and  not  liking  to 
have  all  his  utterances  in  debate  so  exactly  defined.  The 
protocols,  however,  were  to  be  submitted  to  umpires  charged 


MILTITZ  AND  THE  DISPUTATION  AT  LEIPZIG.  137 

to  decide  the  result  of  the  disputation,  and  were  to  be  pub- 
Hshed  after  their  verdict  was  announced.  In  vain  had  both 
Luther  and  Carlstadt,  who  refused  to  bind  themselves  to 
this  decision,  opposed  this  stipulation.  The  Duke,  however, 
insisted  on  it,  as  a  means  of  terminating  judicially  the  contest. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  June  27  the  disputation  was 
opened  with  all  the  worldly  and  spiritual  solemnity  that 
could  be  given  to  a  most  important  academical  event. 
First  came  an  address  of  welcome  in  the  hall,  spoken  by 
the  Leipzig  professor,  Simon  Pistoris ;  then  a  mass  in  the 
church  of  St.  Thomas,  whither  the  assembly  repaired  in  a 
procession  of  state ;  then  a  still  grander  procession  to  the 
Pleissenburg,  where  a  division  of  armed  citizens  was 
stationed  as  a  guard  of  honour ;  then  a  long  speech  on  the 
right  way  of  disputing,  delivered  in  the  Castle  hall  by  the 
famous  Peter  Schade  Mosellanus,  a  professor  at  Leipzig 
and  a  master  of  Latin  eloquence ;  and  lastly  the  chanting 
three  times  of  the  Latin  hymn,  '  Come,  Holy  Ghost,'  the 
whole  assembly  kneeling.  At  two  o'clock  the  disputation 
between  Eck  and  Carlstadt  began.  They  were  placed  oppo- 
site each  other  in  pulpits. 

A  host  of  theologians  and  learned  laymen  had  flocked 
together  to  the  scene.  From  Wittenberg  had  come  the 
Pomeranian  Duke  Barnim,  then  Kector  of  the  University. 
Prince  George  of  Anhalt,  then  a  young  Leipzig  student, 
and  afterwards  a  friend  of  Luther,  was  there.  Duke  George 
of  Saxony  frequently  attended  the  proceedings,  and  listened 
attentively.  His  court  jester  is  said  to  have  appeared  with 
him,  and  a  comic  scene  is  mentioned  as  having  occurred 
between  him  and  Eck,  to  the  great  diversion  of  the  meeting. 
Frederick  the  Wise  was  represented  by  one  of  his  counsellors, 
Hans  von  Planitz. 

Eck  and  Carlstadt  contended  for  four  days,  from  June 
27  to  July  3,  on  the  question  of  free  will  and  its  relations 
to  the  operation  of  the  grace  of  God.  It  was  a  wearisome 
contest,  with  disconnected  texts  from  Scripture  and  pas- 


138  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

sages  from  old  teachers  of  the  Church,  but  without  any 
of  the  lively  and  free  animation  of  moral  and  religious 
spirit,  which,  in  Luther's  treatment  of  such  questions, 
carried  his  hearers  with  him.  In  power  of  memory,  as 
in  readiness  of  speech.  Eck  proved  himself  superior  to 
his  opponent.  On  Carlstadt  bringing  books  of  reference 
with  him,  he  got  this  disallowed,  and  had  now  the  advan- 
tage that  no  one  could  check  his  own  quotations.  Thus, 
confident  of  triumph,  he  proceeded  to  his  contest  with 
Luther. 

Luther  meanwhile,  on  June  29,  the  day  of  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul,  had  preached  a  sermon  at  the  request  of 
Duke  Barnim  at  the  Castle  of  Pleissenburg,  wherein,  re- 
ferring to  the  Gospel  of  the  day,  he  treated,  in  a  simple, 
practical,  and  edifying  manner,  of  the  main  point  of  the 
disputation  between  Eck  and  Carlstadt,  and  at  the  same 
time  of  the  point  he  himself  was  about  to  argue,  namely, 
the  meaning  of  the  power  of  the  keys  granted  to  St.  Peter. 
In  opposition  to  him,  Eck  delivered  four  sermons  in  various 
churches  of  the  town  (none  of  which  Luther  would  have 
been  allowed  to  preach  in),  and  speaking  of  them  after- 
wards he  said,  '  I  simply  stirred  up  the  people  to  be 
disgusted  with  the  Lutheran  errors.'  The  members  of  the 
Leipzig  university  kept  peevishly  aloof  from  their  brethren 
of  Wittenberg  throughout  the  disputation,  while  paying  all 
possible  homage  to  Eck.  When  Luther  one  day  entered  a 
church,  the  monks  who  were  conducting  service  hastily 
took  away  the  monstrance  and  the  elements,  to  avoid 
having  them  defiled  by  his  presence.  And  yet  he  was  after- 
wards reproached  for  neglecting  to  go  to  church  at  Leipzig. 
In  the  hostelries  where  the  Wittenberg  students  lodged, 
such  violent  scenes  occurred  between  them  and  their  Leipzig 
brethren,  that  halberdiers  had  to  be  stationed  at  the  tables 
to  keep  order. 

Duke  George  invited  the  heretic,  together  with  Eck  and 
Carlstadt,  to  his  own  table,  and  to  a  private  audience  as 


MILTITZ  AND  THE  DISPUTATION  AT  LEIPZIG,    139 

well.  So  frank  and  genial  was  he,  and  so  intent  on  making 
himself  acquainted  with  Luther  and  his  cause.  Luther  spoke 
of  him  tlien  as  a  good,  pious  prince,  who  knew  how  to  speak 
in  princely  fashion.  The  Duke,  however,  told  him  at  that 
audience,  that  the  Bohemians  entertained  great  expectations 
of  him ;  and  yet  George,  who  on  his  mother's  side  was 
grand- son  to  Podiebrad,  King  of  Bohemia,  was  anxious  to 
have  all  taint  of  the  hateful  Bohemian  heresy  most  carefully 
avoided.  On  this  point  Luther  remarked  to  him  that  he 
knew  well  how  to  distinguish  between  the  pipe  and  the  piper, 
and  was  only  sorry  to  see  how  accessible  princes  might  be 
to  the  influence  of  foreign  agitations.  Leipzig  altogether 
must  have  been  a  strange  and  uncomfortable  atmosphere  for 
Luther. 

On  Monday,  July  4,  he  entered  the  lists  with  Eck.  On 
the  morning  of  that  day  he  signed  the  conditions,  which 
had  been  arranged  in  spite  of  his  protest ;  but  he  stated 
that,  against  the  verdict  of  the  judges,  whatever  it  might  be, 
he  maintained  the  right  of  appeal  to  a  Council,  and  would 
not  accept  the  Papal  curia  as  his  judge.  The  protocol  on 
this  point  ran  as  follows :  '  Nevertheless  Dr.  Martin  has 
stipulated  for  his  appeal,  which  he  has  already  announced, 
and  so  far  as  the  same  is  lawful,  will  in  no  wise  abandon 
his  claim  thereto.  He  has  stipulated  further  that,  for 
reasons  touching  himself,  the  report  of  this  disputation 
shall  not  be  submitted  for  approval  to  the  Papal  court.' 

The  appearance  of  Luther  a:  this  disputation  has  given 
occasion  for  the  first  description  of  his  person  which  we 
possess  from  the  pen  of  a  contemporary.  Mosellanus, 
already  mentioned,  says  of  him  in  a  letter :  '  He  is  of 
middle  stature,  his  body  thin,  and  so  wasted  by  care  and 
study,  that  nearly  all  his  bones  may  be  counted.  He  is  in 
the  prime  of  life.  His  voice  is  clear  and  melodious.  His 
learning  and  his  knowledge  of  Scripture  are  extraordinary  ; 
he  has  nearly  everything  at  his  fingers'  ends.  Greek  and 
Hebrew  he  understands  sufficiently  well  to  give  his  judgment 


140 


THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME, 


ALtHLRNA  IP5E.  SNJ<L  A\E/^T1S    5LVWLACHR4  irVTHERys 
ExPRIAilTAr  WrrV5  CERA   "LVCAE   0CC1DV05* 


Fig.  15.— Luther.    (Froir  an  engraving  of  Cranach,  in  1520.) 


MILTITZ  AND  THE  DISPUTATION  AT  LEIPZIG.  141 

on  the  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures.  In  speaking,  he 
has  a  vast  store  of  subjects  and  words  at  his  command ;  he 
is  moreover  refined  and  sociable  in  his  hfe  and  manners ;  he 
has  no  rough  Stoicism  or  pride  about  him,  and  he  under- 
stands how  to  adapt  himself  to  different  persons  and  times. 
In  societ}^  he  is  lively  and  witty.  He  is  always  fresh,  cheer- 
ful, and  at  his  ease,  and  has  a  pleasant  countenance,  however 
hard  his  enemies  may  threaten  him,  so  that  one  cannot  but 
believe  that  Heaven  is  with  him  in  his  great  undertaking. 
Most  people  however  reproach  him  with  wanting  moderation 
in  polemics,  and  with  being  more  cutting  than  befits  a 
theologian  and  one  who  propounds  something  new  in  sacred 
matters.'  His  ability  as  a  disputant  was  afterwards  ac- 
knowledged by  Eck,  wh^in  referring  to  this  tourney,  quoted 
Aristotle's  remark  that  when  two  men  dispute  together,  each 
of  whom  has  learned  the  art,  there  is  sure  to  be  a  good 
disputation. 

Eck  is  described  by  Mosellanus  as  a  man  of  a  tall, 
square  figure,  with  a  voice  fit  for  a  public  crier,  but  more 
coarse  than  distinct,  and  with  nothing  pleasant  about  it ;  wdth 
the  mouth,  the  eyes,  and  the  whole  appearance  of  a  butcher 
or  soldier,  but  with  a  most  remarkable  memory.  In  power 
of  memory  and-elocution  he  surpassed  even  Luther ;  but  in 
solidity  and  real  breadth  of  learning,  impartial  men  like 
Pistoris  gave  the  palm  to  Luther.  Eck  is  said  to  have 
imitated  the  Italians  in  his  great  animation  of  speech,  his 
declamation,  and  gesticulations  with  his  arms  and  his  whole 
body.  Melancthon  even  said  in  a  letter  after  the  disputa- 
tion, *  Most  of  us  must  admire  Eck  for  his  manifold  and 
distinguished  intellectual  gifts.'  Later  on  he  calls  him, 
*  Eckeckeck,  the  daws'-voice.'  At  any  rate  Eck  displayed  a 
rare  powder  and  endurance  in  those  Leipzig  days,  and  under- 
stood above  all  how  to  pursue  with  cleverness  the  real  object 
he  had  in  view  in  his  contest  with  Luther. 

The  two  began  at  once  with  that  point  which  Eck  had 
singled  out  as  the  chief  object  of  debate,  and  about  which 


142 


THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME 


Luther  had  advanced  his  boldest  proposition,  namely,  the 
question  of  the  Papal  power. 

After  lengthy  discussions  on  the  evidence  of  texts  of 
Scripture  ;  on  the  old  Fathers  of  the  Church,  to  whom  the 
Papal  supremacy  was  unknown ;  on  the  Western  Church  of 


Fig.  16.— Dr.  John  Eck.     (From  an  old  woodcut.) 

middle  ages,  by  whom  that  supremacy  was  acknowledged 
at  an  earlier  period  than  Luther  would  admit ;  on  the  non- 
subjection  to  Eome  of  Eastern  Christendom,  to  whom  Luther 
referred,  and  whom  Eck  with  a  light  heart  put  outside  the 
pale  of  salvation,  Eck  on  the  second  day  of  the  disputation 


MILTITZ  AND  THE  DISPUTATION  AT  LEIPZIG.  143 

passed,  after  due  premeditation,  from  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  he  had  quoted  in  favour  of  the  Divine  right  of 
the  Papal  primacy,  to  the  statements  of  the  English  heretic 
Wicliife,  and  the  Bohemian  Huss,  who  had  denied  this 
right,  and  had  therefore  been  justly  condemned.  He  was 
bound  to  notice  thjem,  he  said,  since,  in  his  own  frail  and 
humble  judgment,  Luther's  thesis  favoured  in  the  highest 
degree-  the  errors  of  the  Bohemians,  who,  it  was  reported, 
wished  him  well  for  his  opinions.  Luther  answered  him  as 
he  had  done  in  each  case  before.  *  He  condemned  the  sepa- 
ration of  the  Bohemians  from  the  Catholic  Church,  on  the 
ground  that  the  highest  right  derived  from  God  was  that 
of  love  and  the  Spirit,  and  he  repudiated  the  reproach 
which  Eck  sought  to  cast  upon  him.  But  he  declared 
at  the  same  time  that  the  Bohemians  on  that  point  had 
never  yet  been  refuted.  And  with  perfect  self-conviction 
and  calm  reflection  he  proceeded  to  assert  that  among 
the  articles  of  Huss  some  were  fundamentally  Christian 
and  Evangelical,  such  as,  for  example,  his  statements  thai 
there  was  only  one  Universal  Church  (to  which  even^ 
Greek  Christendom  had  always  and  still  belonged),  and 
that  the  belief  in  the  supremacy  of  the  Church  of  Eome 
was  not  necessary  to  salvation.  No  man,  he  added,  durst 
impose  upon  a  Christian  an  article  of  belief  which  was 
antiscriptural ;  the  judgment  of  an  individual  Christian 
must  be  worth  more  than  that  of  the  Pope  or  even  of  a 
Council,  provided  he  has  a  better  ground  for  it. 

That  moment,  when  Luther  spoke  thus  of  the  doctrines 
of  Huss,  a  heretic  already  condemned  by  a  Council  and 
proscribed  in  Germany,  w^as  the  most  impressive  and  imf 
portant  in  the  whole  disputation.  An  eye-witness,  w4io  sat 
below  Duke  George  and  Barnim,  relates  that  the  Duke,  on 
hearing  the  words,  shouted  out  in  a  voice  heard  by  all  the 
assembly,  '  A  plague  upon  it ! '  and  shook  his  head,  and  put 
both  hands  to  his  sides.  The  whole  audience,  variously 
as  they  thought  of  the  assertion,  must   have  been  fairly 


144  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

astounded.  Luther,  it  was  true,  had  already  stated  in 
writing  that  a  Council  could  err.  But  now  he  declared  him- 
self for  principles  which  a  Council,  namely  that  of  Constance, 
solemnly  appointed  and  unanimously  recognised  by  the 
whole  of  Western  Christendom,  had  condemned,  and  thus 
openly  accused  that  Council  of  error  in  a  decision  of  the 
most  momentous  importance.  Nay  more,  that  decision 
had  been  concurred  in  by  the  very  men  who,  while  recog- 
nising the  Papal  primacy,  strenuously  defended  against 
Papal  despotism  the  rights  of  General  Councils,  and  of 
the  nations  and  states  which  they  represented.  The 
Western  Catholic  Church  entertained,  as  we  have  seen, 
a  diversity  of  views  as  to  the  relative  authority  of  the 
Popedom,  as  an  institution  of  Christ,  and  that  which  ap- 
pertained to  Councils.  Luther  now,  by  denying  the  Divine 
institution  and  authority  of  the  Papacy,  seemed  to  have 
broken  with  all  authority  whatsoever  existmg  in  the  Church, 
and  with  every  possible  exercise  of  the  same. 

Luther  himself  does  not  appear  to  have  considered  at 
the  moment  this  extent  of  his  acknowledgment  of  the 
*  Christian '  character  of  some  of  Huss's  articles,  nor  to 
have  adequately  reflected  on  the  attitude  of  direct  oppo- 
sition in  which  it  placed  him  to  the  Council  of  Constance. 
When  Eck  declared  it  '  horrible  '  that  the  '  reverend  father ' 
had  not  shrunk  from  contradicting  that  holy  Council,  as- 
sembled by  consent  of  all  Christendom,  Luther  interrupted 
him  with  the  words,  '  It  is  not  true  that  I  have  spoken  against 
the  Council  of  Constance.'  He  then  went  on  to  draw  the 
inference  that  the  authority  of  the  Council,  if  it  erred  in  re- 
spect of  those  articles,  was  consequently  fallible  altogether. 

Some  days  later,  and  after  further  consideration,  Luther 
produced  four  propositions  of  Huss,  which  were  perfectly 
Christian,  although  they  had  been  formally  rejected  by  the 
Council.  He  sought  means,  nevertheless,  to  preserve  for 
the  Council  its  dignity.  As  for  these  rejected  articles,  he 
said,  it  had  declared  only  some  to  be  heretical,  and  others  to 


MILTITZ  AND  THE  DISPUTATION  AT  LEIPZIG.  145 

be  simply  mistaken,  and  the  latter,  at  all  events,  must  not 
be  counted  as  heresies — nay,  he  took  the  liberty  of  sup- 
posing that  the  former  were  interpolations  in  the  text  of  the 
Councirs  resolutions.  He  would  grant,  further,  that  the  de- 
cisions of  a  Council  in  matters  of  faith  must  at  all  times  be 
accepted.  And  in  order  to  guard  himself  against  any  mis- 
understanding and  misconstruction,  he  once  broke  off  from 
the  Latin,  in  which  the  whole  disputation  had  been  con- 
ducted, and  declared  in  German  that  he  in  no  way  desired 
to  see  allegiance  renounced  to  the  Eomish  Church,  but  that 
the  only  question  in  dispute  was  whether  its  supremacy 
rested  on  Divine  right— that  is  to  say,  on  direct  Divine 
institution  in  the  New  Testament,  or  whether  its  origin  and 
character  were  simply  such  as  the  Imperial  Crown,  for 
example,  possessed  in  relation  to  the  German  nation.  He 
was  well  aware  how  charges  of  heresy  and  apostasy  were 
raised  against  him,  and  how  industriously  Eck  had  pro- 
moted them.  It  was  only  with  pain  and  inward  struggles 
that  he  stood  out,  Bible  in  hand,  against  the  Council  of 
Constance  and  such  a  general  gathering  of  Western  Christen- 
dom. But  not  a  step  would  he  go  towards  any  recognition 
of  the  Papacy  as  an  institution  resting  on  Scripture.  He 
insisted  that  even  a  Council  could  not  compel  him  to  do 
this,  or  make  an  essential  article  of  Christian  belief  out 
of  anything  not  found  in  the  Bible.  Again  and  agam  he 
declared  that  even  a  Council  could  err. 

For  five  whole  days  they  contested  this  main  point  of 
the  disputation,  without  arriving  2X  any  further  result. 

The  other  subjects  of  discussion,  relating  to  purgatory, 
indulgences,  and  penance,  were  after  this  of  very  little 
importance.  With  regard  to  indulgences  even  Eck  now 
displayed  strikmg  moderation.  The  dispute  on  the  correct 
conception  of  purgatory  led  to  a  new  and  important  decla- 
ration by  Luther  as  to  the  power  of  the  Church  in  rela- 
tion to  Scripture.  Eck  quoted  as.  Biblical  proof  a  passage 
from  the  Apocryphal  Books  of  the  Old  Testament,  which 


146  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

although  not  originally  mcluded  in  the  records  of  the  Old 
Covenant,  had  been  accepted  by  the  middle  ages  as  of  equal 
authority  with  the  other  Biblical  writings.  For  the  first 
time  Luther  now  protested  against  the  equal  value  thus 
assigned  to  them,  and  especially  against  the  Church  con- 
ferring upon  them  an  authority  they  did  not  possess. 

The  disputation  between  Eck  and  Luther  lasted  till 
July  13.  Luther  concluded  his  argument  with  the  words  : 
*  1  am  sorry  that  the  learned  doctor  only  dips  into  Scripture 
as  deep  as  the  water- spider  into  the  water — nay,  that  he 
seems  to  fly  from  it  as  the  devil  from  the  Cross.  I  prefer, 
with  all  deference  to  the  Fathers,  the  authority  of  Scripture, 
which  I  herewith  recommend  to  the  arbiters  of  our  cause.' 

After  this  Carlstadt  and  Eck  had  only  a  short  passage 
of  arms.  The  disputation  was  to  be  concluded  on  the  15th, 
as  Duke  George  wished  to  receive  the  Elector  of  Branden- 
burg on  a  visit  to  the  Pleissenbm-g.  With  regard  to  the 
universities,  to  whom  the  report  of  the  disputation  was  to 
be  submitted,  those  agreed  upon  were  Paris  and  Erfurt, 
but  neither  of  the  two  would  undertake  so  responsible  a 
task. 

Eck  left  the  disputation  with  triumph,  applauded  by  his 
friends  and  rewarded  by  Duke  George  with  favours  and 
honours.  He  followed  up  his  fancied  victory  by  further 
exciting  the  people  against  Luther,  and  pointing  out  to 
them  in  particular  the  sympathy  between  him  and  Huss. 
He  wrote  even  to  the  Elector  Frederick  from  Leipzig,  pro- 
posing that  he  should  have  Luther's  books  burnt.  The  two 
men  henceforth  and  for  ever  were  mutual  enemies,  with  no 
dealings  together  but  those  of  heated  controversy  in  writing. 
Eck's  chief  efforts  were  directed  to  securing  Luther's  formal 
and  public  condemnation. 

At  Leipzig  Luther  had  been  watched  with  the  utmost 
suspicion.  The  common  people  had  actually  been  told  that 
there  was  something  mysterious  in  the  little  silver  ring  he 
wore  on  his  finger,  very  likely  a  small  charm  wjth  the  devil 


MILTITZ  AND  THE  DISPUTATION  AT  LEIPZIG.    147 

inside.  It  was  even  remarked  on  and  wondered  at  that  he 
carried  a  bunch  of  flowers  in  his  hand,  which  he  would  look 
at  and  smell.  From  that  time  probably  originated  the  saying 
of  a  devout  old  dame  at  Leipzig,  as  published  by  one  of  his 
theological  opponents,  the  old  woman  having  once  lived  at 
Eisleben  with  Luther's  mother,  that  her  son  Martin  was  the 
fruit  of  an  embrace  by  the  devil. 

For  real  information,  however,  about  Luther  at  Leipzig, 
and  the  impression  he  produced  by  his  arguments,  more  is 
to  be  gathered  from  the  effect  of  his  public  api^earance 
there  during  this  disputation,  than  from  a  whole  heap  of 
printed  matter.  We,  allude  not  only  to  the  educated  laity 
and  men  of  learning,  but  to  the  mass  of  the  people  who 
shared  in  the  excitement  caused  by  this  controversy.  A 
few  months  later  we  hear  an  opponent  complain  that 
Luther's  teaching  had  given  rise  to  so  much  squabbling, 
discord,  and  rebellion  among  the  people,  that  *  there 
was  absolutely  not  a  town,  village,  or  house,  where 
men  were  not  ready  to  tear  each  other  to  pieces  on  his 
account.'       *... 

Luther  returned  to  Wittenberg  full  of  dejection.  The 
time  at  Leipzig  had  only  been  wasted ;  the  disputation  had 
been  unworthy  of  the  name ;  Eck  and  his  friends  there 
had  cared  nothing  w^hatever  about  the  truth.  Eck,  he 
said,  had  made  more  clamour  in  an  hour  than  he  or 
Carlstadt  could  have  done  in  a  couple  of  years,  and  yet  all 
the  time  the  question  at  issue  was  one  of  peaceful  and 
abstruse  theology.  His  disappointment,  however,  did  not 
refer,  as  people  perhaps  might  have  imagined,  to  the  treat- 
ment his  thesis  on  the  Papal  primacy  had  met  with,  or  to 
any  embarrassment  occasioned  him  on  that  account.  On 
the  contrary,  while  complaining  of  the  unworthy  character 
of  the  disputation,  he  excepted  that  particular  thesis. 
He  alluded  rather  to  the  superficiality  and  want  of  in- 
terest with  which  s.uch  important  questions  as  justification 
by  faith,   and  the  sinfulness   attaching  even  to  the  best 

l2 


148  THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

works  of  man,  were  passed  over  or  evaded.  On  all  the 
points  which  he  had  wished  to  contend  tor  and  expound 
at  Leipzig,  he  now  published  further  explanations.  And 
with  regard  to  the  Councils,  he  declared  in  still  stronger 
terms  than  at  Leipzig,  that  they  certainly  might  err  and 
had  erred  even  in  the  most  important  matters;  one  had 
no  right  to  identify  either  them  or  the  Pope  with  the 
Church. 

From  this  he  proceeded  to  explain  his  true  relations 
with  the  Bohemians.  The  theologian  Jerome  Emser,  a  friend 
of  Eck,  and  a  favourite  of  Duke  George,  contributed  in 
his  own  way  to  this  end.  He  had  had  a  hot  discussion 
with  Luther  before  the  disputation  at  Leipzig,  in  which  he 
reproached  him  with  causing  trouble  in  the  Church.  He 
now  prepared  a  remarkable  public  letter  to  a  high  Catholic 
ecclesiastic  at  Prague,  of  the  name  of  Zack.  Whilst  assert- 
ing in  it  that  the  Bohemian  schismatics  appealed  to  Luther 
and  had  actually  offered  prayers  and  held,  services  for  him 
during  the  disputation,  he  announced,  with  feigned  kindness 
to  Luther,  that  the  latter,  on  the  contrary,  had  eagerly  re- 
pudiated at  Leipzig  any  fellowship  with  them,  and  had 
denounced  their  apostasy  from  Eome.  Luther  detected  in 
all  this,  mere  trickery  and  malice,  and  we  also  can  only 
recognise  in  it  a  crafty  attempt  to  ruin  Luther's  position 
all  round.  If,  says  Luther,  he  were  to  accept  in  silence  the 
praise  here  meted  out  to  him,  he  would  seem  to  have  re- 
tracted his  whole  teaching,  and  laid  down  his  arms  before 
Eck ;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  he  were  to  disclaim  it,  he  would 
be  cried  down  at  once  as  a  patron  of  the  Bohemians, 
and  charged  with  base  ingratitude  to  Emser.  Accordingly, 
in  a  small  pamphlet,  he  broke  out,  full  of  wrath  and  bitter- 
ness, against  Emser,  who  replied  to  him  in  a  similar  tone. 
But  he  represented  the  case  with  great  clearness.  If  his 
doctrines  had  pleased  the  Bohemians,  he  would  not  retract 
them  on  that  account.  He  had  no  desire  to  screen  their 
errors,  but  he  found  on  their  side  Christ,  the  Scriptures,  and 


MILTITZ  AND  THE  DISPUTATION  AT  LEIPZIG.    149 

the  sacraments  of  the  Church,  and  therewith  a  Christian 
hatred  of  the  worldhness,  immorality,  and  arrogance  of 
the  Eomish  clergy.  Nay,  he  rejoiced  to  think  that  his 
doctrines  pleased  them,  and  would  be  glad  if  they  pleased 
Jews  and  Turks,  and  Emser,  who  was  enthralled  in  godless 
error,  and  eyen  Eck  himself. 

Letters  were  now  already  on  the  way  to  Luther  from 
two  ecclesiastics  of  Prague,  Paduschka  and  Kossdalovicky, 
members  of  the  Utraquist  Hussite  Church,  which  in  opposi- 
tion to  Kome  insisted  on  the  sacramental  cup  being  given 
to  the  laity.  They  assured  Luther  of  thek  joyful  and 
prayerful  sympathy  with  him  in  his  struggle.  One  of  them 
sent  him  a  present  of  knives  of. Bohemian  workmanship, 
the  other  a  writing  of  Huss  upon  the  Church.  Luther 
accepted  the  presents  with  cordiality,  and  sent  them  his 
own  writings  in  return.  With  regard  to  separation  from 
the  Eomish  Church,  the  experience  of  Huss  plainly  showed 
him  how  impossible  that  Church  made  it,  even  to  one  whose 
heart  was  heavy  at  the  thought  of  leaving  her,  to  remain 
in  her  communion. 

Thus  the  contest  at  Leipzig  was  now  over,  whilst  in  the 
meantime  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  after  the  election  of 
the  new  Emperor,  the  Elector  Frederick  and  the  Archbishop 
of  Treves  consulted  together  about  an  examination  of  Luther 
before  the  Archbishojp,  as  j^roposed  by  Miltitz.  Both  wished 
to  postpone  it  till  the  Diet,  then  about  to  be  held.  Miltitz, 
however,  notwithstanding  the  result  of  the  disputation  and 
the  further  declarations  of  Luther,  still  clung  to  his  plan  of 
mediation.  He  arranged  once  igaore  an  interview  with  Luther 
on  October  9  at  Lieben  wer  da,  when  the  latter  renewed  his 
promise  to  appear  before  the  Archbishop,  but  he  failed  to 
induce  the  Elector  to  let  Luther  travel  with  him  to  the 
Archbishoj).  For  the  delivery  of  the  golden  rose,  when 
it  at  last  took  place,  he  was  richly  rewarded  with  money. 
But  the  fruitlessness  of  his  negotiations  with  Luther  had 
become  apparent. 


I50  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 


CHAPTEE  V. 

luther's  further  work,  writings,  and  inward  progress, 

UNTIL    1520. 

Luther  looked  upon  his  disputation  at  Leipzig  as  an  idle 
waste  of  time.  He  longed  to  get  back  to  his  work  at 
Wittenberg.  He  remained,  in  fact,  devoted  with  his  whole 
soul  to  his  official  duties  there,  though  to  the_  historian,  of 
course,  his  work  and  struggles  in  the  broader  and  general 
arena  of  the  Church  engage  the  most  attention.  He  might 
well  quarrel  with  the  occasions  that  constantly  called  him 
out  to  it,  as  so  many  interruptions  to  his  proper  calling. 

His  energy  there  in  the  pulpit  was  as  constant  as  his 
energy  in  the  professor's  chair.  He  glowed  with  zeal  to 
unfold  the  one  truth  of  salvation  from  its  original  source, 
the  Scriptures,  and  to  declare  it  and  impress  it  on  the 
hearts  of  his  young  pupils  and  his  Wittenberg  congre- 
gation, of  educated  and  uneducated,  of  great  and  small. 
But  he  also  wished  to  lay  it  before  his  students  as  a  truth 
for  life.  With  this  object,  he  continued  active,  with  his 
pen,  both  in  the  Latin  and  the  German  languages.  He 
was  glad  to  turn  to  this  from  the  questions  of  ecclesiastical 
controversy,  which  had  formed  the  subject  of  his  dis- 
putation, and  of  the  writings  referring  to  it.  It  was 
enough  for  him  to  show  forth  simply  the  merciful  love  of 
God  and  of  the  Saviour  Christ,  to  point  out  the  simple 
road  of  faith,  and  to  destroy  all  trust  in  mere  outward 
works,  in  one's  own  merit  and  virtue.  Only  to  this  ex- 
tent, and  because  the  authority  pretended  by  the  Church 
was  opposed  to  this  truth  and    this  road   to  salvation, 


LUTHER'S  FURTHER  WORK,   WRITINGS,  ETC,      151 

he  was  forced  here  also,  and  in  face  of  his  congregation,  to 
wield  the  sword  of  his  eloquence  against  that  authority, 
and  this  he  did  with  a  zeal  regardless  of  consequences.  In 
all  that  he  did,  in  his  lectures  as  well  as  in  his  sermons,  in 
his  exposition  of  God's  word  in  particular,  as  in  his  own 
polemics,  he  always  threw  his  whole  personality  into  the 
subject.  We  see  him  inwardly  moved  and  often  elated  by 
the  joyful  message  which  he  himself  had  learned,  and  had 
to  announce  to  others,  inspired  by  love  to  his  fellow- 
Christians,  whom  he  would  wish  to  help  save,  and  zealous 
even  to  anger  for  the  cause  of  his  Lord.  At  the  same 
time,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  he  was  often  carried  away 
by  the  vehemence  of  his  views,  which  saw  at  once  in  every 
opponent  an  uncompromising  enemy  to  the  truth ;  and 
that  his  naturally  passionate  temperament  was  often  power- 
fully stirred,  though  even  then  his  whole  tone  and  demeanour 
was  blended  with  outbursts  of  the  noblest  and  the  purest 
zeal. 

In  his  academical  lectures  Luther  still  remained  faith- 
ful to. that  path  which  he  had  struck  out  on  entering  the 
theological  faculty.  He  wished  simply  to  propound  the 
revealed  word  of  God,  by  explaining  the  books  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments;  though  he  took  pains  in  these 
lectures,  in  which  he  devoted  several  terms  to  the  study  of  a 
single  book,,  to  explain  thoroughly  and  impressively  the  most 
important  doctrines  of  Christian  faith  and  conduct.  Thus  he 
occupied  himself  during  the  time  of  the  contest  about  in- 
dulgences, and  after  the  autumn  of  1516,  with  the  Epistle  to 
the  Galatians,  wherein  he  found  comprised  clearly  and  briefly 
the  fundamental  truth  of  salvation,  the  doctrine  of  the  way 
of  faith,  of  God's  laws  of  requirements  and  punishments,  and 
of  gospel  grace.  He  then  turned  anew  to  the  Psalms,  dissatis- 
fied with  his  own  earlier  exposition  of  them.  His  exposition 
of  St.  Paul's  Epistle  he  had  sent  to  the  press  whilst  engaged 
in  his  preparations  for  the  Leipzig  disputation.  His  oppo- 
nents, he  says  here,  might  busy  themselves  with  their  much 


152  THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

larger  affairs,  with  their  mdulgences,  their  Papal  bulls,  and 
the  power  of  the  Church,  and  so  on ;  he  would  retire  to 
smaller  matters,  to  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  to  the  Apostle, 
who  called  himself  not  a  prince  of  Apostles,  but  the  least 
of  the  Apostles.  He  also  now  began  the  printing  of  his 
work  on  the  Psalms. 

Crowds  of  listeners  gathered  around  him ;  his  audience 
at  times  numbered  upwards  of  four  hundred.  Duruig  the 
three  years  following  the  outbreak  of  the  quarrel  about  in- 
dulgences, the  number  of  those  who  matriculated  annually 
at  the  university  increased  threefold.  Luther  wrote  to 
Spalatin  that  the  number  of  students  increased  mightily, 
like  an  overflowing  river ;  the  town  could  no  longer  contain 
them,  many  had  to  leave  again  for  want  of  dwellings. 

To  this  prosperity  of  the  university  Melancthon  espe- 
cially contributed.  He  had  been  appointed,  as  we  have 
akeady  mentioned,  first  professor  of  Greek  by  the  Elector, 
and  in  addition  to  the  young  theologians,  he  attracted  a 
number  of  other  students  to  his  lectures.  Of  still  greater 
importance  for  Luther  and  his  work,  was  the  personal 
friendship  and  community  of  ideas,  convictions,  and  aspi- 
rations which  had  bound  the  two  men  together  in  close 
intimacy  from  theh^  first  acquaintance.  Their  paths  in  life 
had  hitherto  been  very  different.  Philip  Schwarzerd,  sur- 
named  Melancthon,  born  in  1497  of  a  burgher's  family  of  the 
little  town  of  Bretten  in  the  Palatinate,  had  passed  a  happy 
youth,  and  harmoniously  and  peacefully  developed  into  man- 
hood. He  had  had  from  early  life  capable  teachers  for  his 
education,  and  was  under  the  protection  of  the  great  philologist 
Eeuchlin,  who  was  a  brother  of  his  grandmother.  He  then 
showed  gifts  of  mind  wonderfully  rich  and  early  ripening. 
Besides  the  classics,  he  learnt  mathematics,  astronomy,  and 
law.  He  also  studied  the  Scriptures,  grew  to  love  them,  and 
even  when  a  youth  had  made  himself  familiar  with  their 
contents,  without  having  had  first  to  learn  to  know  their 
worth  by  a  heavy  sense  of  inward  need,  by  inward  struggles 


LUTHER'S  FURTHER  WORK,   WRITINGS,  ETC. 


153 


or  a  long  unsatisfied  hunger  of  the  soul.  Thus,  at  seven- 
teen he  was  ah-eady  master  of  arts,  and  at  twenty-one  was 
appomted  professor  at  Wittenberg.  The  young  man,  with 
an   insignificant,  dehcate  frame,  and  a  shy,   awkward  de- 


IVENTiS  «POTVIT'DYRERIVS-  ORA-PHILIPPI 
A\ENTEAV*NON'POTViT'PiNGERE'DOCTA 
JVVANV5 


Fig.  17.— Melancthon.     (From  a  Portrait  by  Dürer.) 

meanour,  yet  with  a  handsome,  powerful  forehead,  an  in- 
tellectual eye,  and  refined,  thoughtful  features,  efi'aced  at 
once,  by  his  inaugural  address,  any  doubts  arising  from  his 
youthful  appearance. 


154  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

In  this  speech,  however,  he  ah-eady  declared  that  the 
chief  object  of  classical  studies  was  to  teach  theologians  to 
draw  from  the  original  fount  of  Holy  Scripture.  He  him- 
self delivered  a  lecture  on  the  New  Testament  immediately 
after  one  on  Homer.  And  it  was  the  Lutheran  conception 
of  the  doctrine  of  salvation  which  he  adopted  m  his  own 
continued  study  of  the  Bible. 

The  year  of  his  arrival  at  Wittenberg  he  celebrated 
Luther  in  a  poem.  He  accompanied  him  to  Leipzig. 
During  the  disputation  there  he  is  said  to  have  assisted  his 
friend  with  occasional  suggestions  or  notes  of  argument, 
and  thereby  to  have  roused  the  anger  of  Eck.  He  now 
took  the  lowest  theological  degree  of  bachelor,  to  qualify 
himself  for  giving  theological  lectures  on  Scrij^ture.  He 
who  from  early  youth  had  enjoyed  so  abundantly  the 
treasures  of  Humanistic  learning,  and  had  won  for  him- 
self the  admiration  of  an  Erasmus,  now  found  in  this 
study  of  Scripture  a  '  heavenly  ambrosia '  for  his  soul,  and 
something  much  higher  than  all  human  wisdom.  And 
already,  in  independent  judgment  on  the  traditional  doc- 
trines of  the  Church,  he  not  only  kept  pace  with  Luther 
'but  even  outwent  him.  It  was  he  who  attacked  the 
dogma  of  transubstantiation,  according  to  which  in  the 
mass  the  bread  and  wine  of  the  sacrament  a're  so  changed 
by  the  consecration  of  the  priest  into  the  body  and  blood 
of  our  Lord,  that  nothing  really  remains  of  their  original 
substance,  but  they  only  appear  to  the  senses  to  retain  it. 

Luther  at  once  recognised  wdth  joy  the  marvellous 
w^ealth  of  talent  and  knowledge  in  his  new  colleague,  whose 
senior  he  was  by  fourteen  years,  besides  being  far  ahead  of 
him  in  theological  study  and  experience.  We  have  seen, 
during  Luther's  stay  at  Augsburg,  how  closely  his  heart 
clung  to  Melancthon  and  to  the  '  sweet  intercourse '  with 
him ;  we  know  of  no  other  instance  where  Luther  formed  a 
friendship  so  rapidly.  The  more  intimately  he  knew^  him, 
the   more   highly   he   esteemed   him.      When   Eck    spoke 


LUTHER'S  FURTHER    WORK,    WRITINGS,  ETC     155 

slightingly  of  him  as  a  mere  paltry  grammarian,  Luther  ex- 
claimed, *  I,  the  doctor  of  philosophy  and  theology,  am  not 
ashamed  to  yield  the  point,  if  this  grammarian's  mind 
thinks  differently  to  myself;  I  have  done  so  often  already, 
and  do  the  same. daily,  because  of.  the  gifts  with  which  God 
has  so  richly  filled  this  fragile  vessel ;  I  honour  the  work  of 
my  God  in  him.'  *  Philip,'  he  said  at  another  time,  '  is  a 
wonder  to  us  all;  if  the  Lord  will,  he  will  beat  many 
Martins  as  the  mightiest  enemy  to  the  devil  and  Scholasti- 
cism ; '  and  again,  '  This  little  Greek  is  even  my  master  in 
theology.'  Such  were  Luther's  words,  not  uttered  to  par- 
ticular friends  of  Melancthon,  in  order  to  please  them,  nor 
in  public  speeches  or  poetry,  in  which  at  that  time  friends 
showered  fulsome  flattery  on  friends,  but  in  confidential 
letters  to  his  own  most  intimate  friends,  to  Spalatin,  Staupitz, 
and  others.  So  willing  and  ready  was  he,  whilst  himself  on 
the  road  to  the  loftiest  work  and  successes,  to  give  precedence 
to  this  new  companion  whom  God  had  given  him.  Luther 
also  interested  himself  with  Spalatin  to  obtain  a  higher 
salary  for  Melancthon,  and  thus  keep  him  at  Wittenberg. 
In  common  with  other  friends,  he  endeavoured  to  induce 
him  to  marry ;  for  he  needed  a  wife  who  would  care  for 
his  health  and  household  better  than  he  did  himself.  His 
marriage  actually  took  place  in  1520,  after  he  had  at  first 
resisted,  in  order  to  allow  no  interruption  to  his  highest 
enjoyment,  his  learned  studies. 

At  the  university  Luther  was  also  busily  engaged  with 
the  necessary  preparations  for  many  lectures  that  were  not 
theological.  He  steadily  persisted  in  his  efforts  to  secure 
the  appointment  of  a  competent  professor  of  Hebrew.  He 
also  worked  hard  to. get  a  qualified  printer,  the  son  of  the 
printer  Lotter  at  Leipzig,,  to  settle  at  the  university,  and 
set  up  there  for  the  first  time  a  press  for  three  languages, 
German,  Latin,  and  Greek.  For  everything  of  this  kind 
that  was  submitted  to  the  Elector,  who  took  a  constant 
interest  in  the  prosperity  of  the  university,  his  friend  Spalatin 


156  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

was  his  confidential  intermediary.  As  early  as  1518  Luther 
had  expressed  to  him  the  wish  and  hope  that  Wittenberg,  in 
honour  of  Frederick  the  Wise,  should,  by  a  new  arrange- 
ment of  study,  become  the  occasion  and  pattern  for  a  general 
reform  of  the  universities.  In  addition  to  his  constant  and 
arduous  labours  of  various  kinds,  he  took  part  also  in  the 
social  mtercourse  of  his  colleagues,  although  he  complained 
of  the  time  he  lost  by  invitations  and  entertainments. 

In  the  town  church  at  Wittenberg  he  continued  his 
active  duties  not  only  on  Sundays  but  during  the  week. 
His  custom  was  to  expound  consecutively  in  a  course  of 
sermons  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  he  explained 
particularly  to  children  and  those  under  age,  the  Lord's 
Prayer  and  the  Ten  Commandments.  This  work  alone, 
he  once  complained  to  Spalatin,  required  properly  a  man 
for  it  and  nothing  else.  These  services  he  gave  to  the 
town  congregation  gratuitously.  The  magistracy  were 
content  to  recognise  them  by  trifliiig  presents  now  and 
then ;  for  instance,  by  a  gift  of  money  on  his  return  from 
Leipzig,  where  he  had  had  to  live  on  his  own  very  scanty 
means.  In  simple,  powerful,  and  thoroughly  popular 
language,  Luther  sought  to  bring  home  to  the  people  who 
filled  his  church,  the  supreme  truth  he  had  newly  gained. 
Here  in  particular  he  employed  his  own  peculiar  German, 
as  he  employed  it  also  in  his  writings. 

Both  he  and  Melancthon  formed  a  close  personal  in- 
timacy with  several  worthy  townsmen  of  Wittenberg.  The 
most  prominent  man  among  them,  the  painter  Lucas 
Cranach,  from  Bamberg,  owner  of  a  house  and  estate  at 
Wittenberg,  the  proprietor  of  an  apothecary's  and  also  of  a 
stationer's  business,  besides  being  a  member  of  the  magis- 
tracy, and  finally  burgomaster,  belonged  to  the  circle  of 
Luther's  nearest  friends.  Luther  took  a  genuine  pleasure 
in  Cranach's  art,  and  the  latter,  in  his  turn,  soon  employed 
it  in  the  service  of  the  Eeformation. 

While  occupied  thus  in  delivermg  simple  and  practical 


LUTHER'S  FURTHER   WORK,   WRITINGS,  ETC.     157 

sermons  to  his  congregation  in  the  town,  he  continued  to 
publish  written  works  of  the  same  character  and  purport,  in 
addition  to  his  labours  in  the  held  of  learned  ecclesiastical 
controversy,  thus  showing  the  love  with  which  he  worked 
for  them  at  large  in  this  matter.  These  writings  were  little 
books,  tracts,  so-called  sermons.  It  did  not  disturb  him,  he 
once  said,  to  hear  daily  of  certain  people  who  despised  his 
poverty  because  he  only  wrote  little  books  and  German 
sermons  for  the  unlearned  laymen.     '  Would  to  God,'  he 


Fig.  18. — Lucas  Ckanach.     (i'rom  a  Portrait  by  himself.) 

said,  '  I  had  all  my  life  long  and  with  all  my  power  served  a 
layman  to  his  improvement ;  I  should  then  be  content  to 
thank  God,  and  would  very  willingly  after  that  let  all  my 
little  books  perish.  I  leave  it  to  others  to  judge  whether 
writing  large  books  and  a  great  number  of  them  constitutes 
art  and  is  useful  to  Christianity  ;  I  consider  rather,  even  if 
I  cared  to  write  large  books  after  their  art,  I  might  do  that 
quicker ^  with  God's  help,  than  making  a  little  sermon  in  my 


158  THE   BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

fashion.  I  have  never  compelled  or  entreated  anyone  to 
listen  to  me  or  read  my  sermons.  I  have  given  freely  to  the 
congregation  of  what  God  has  given  to  me  and  I  owe  to 
them ;  whoever  does  not  like  His  word,  let  him  read  and 
listen  to  others.' 

In  this  spirit  he  composed,  after  the  Leipzig  disputation, 
a  little  consolatory  tract  for  Christians,  full  of  reflection  and 
wisdom.  He  dedicated  it  to  the  Elector,  an  illness  of 
whom  had  prompted  him  to  write  it.  Even  his  most 
bigoted  opponents  could  not  withhold  their  approbation 
of  the  work.  Luther's  pupil  and  biographer  Mathesius, 
thought  there  had  never  been  such  words  of  comfort 
written  before  in  the  German  language.  In  a  similar  strain 
Luther  wrote  about  preparation  for  dying,  the  contempla- 
tion of  Christ's  sufferings,  and  other  matters  of  like  kind. 
He  explained  to  the  people  in  a  few  pages  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, the  Creed,  and  the  Lord's  Prayer.  At  the 
desire  of  the  Elector,  conveyed  to  him  through  Spalatin, 
and  notwithstanding  the  difficulty  he  had  in  finding  time 
for  such  a  large  work,  he  applied  himself  to  a  practical 
exposition  of  the  Epistles  and  Gospels  read  in  church, 
intended  principally  for  the  use  of  preachers. 

At  the  same  time  he  made  steady  progress  with  his  own 
Scriptural  researches,  which  led  him  away  more  and  more 
from  the  main  articles  of  the  purely  traditional  doctrines  of 
the  Church.  And  the  light  which  dawned  upon  him  in 
these  studies  he  took  pains  to  impart  at  once  to  his  con- 
gregation. But  it  was  no  mere  negative  or  hypercritical 
interest  that  led  him  on  and  induced  him  to  write.  In 
connection  with  the  saving  efficacy  of  faith,  which  he  had 
gathered  from  the  Bible,  new  truths,  full  of  import,  un- 
folded themselves  before  him.  On  the  other  hand,  such 
dogmas  of  the  Church  as  he  found  to  have  no  warrant  in 
Scripture,  nor  to  harmonise  with  the  Scriptural  doctrine  of 
salvation,  frequently  faded  from  his  notice,  and  perished 
even  before   he   was   fully  conscious   of  their  hollowness. 


LUTHER'S  FURTHER   WORK,   WRITINGS,  ETC.     159 

The  new  knowledge  had  ripened  with  him  before  the  old 
husk  was  thrown  away. 

Thus  he  now  learnt  and  taught  others  to  understand 
anew  the  meaning  of  the  Christian  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.  The  Church  of  the  middle  ages  beheld 
with  wonder  in  this  sacrament  the  miracle  of  transub- 
stantiation.  The  body  of  our  Lord,  moreover,  here  present 
as  the  object  of  adoration,  was  to  serve  above  all  as  the 
bloodless  repetition  of  the  bloody  sacrifice  for  sin  on 
Golgotha,  to  be  offered  to  God  for  the  good  of  Christen- 
dom and  mankind.  To  offer  that  sacrifice  was  the  highest 
act  which  the  priesthood  could  boast  of,  as  being  thought 
worthy  to  perform  by  God.  This  whole  mysterious,  sacred 
transaction  was  clothed  in  the  mass,  for  the  eye  and  ear 
of  the  members  of  the  congregation,  with  a  number  of 
ritualistic  forms.  In  giving  them,  moreover,  the  con- 
secrated elements  in  the  sacrament,  the  priest  alone  par- 
took of  the  cup.  Luther,  on  the  contrary,  found  the  whole 
meaning  of  that  institution  of  the  departing  Saviour, 
according  to  His  own  words,  *  Take,  eat,  and  drink,'  in  the 
blessed  and  joyful  communion  here  prepared  by  Him  for 
the  congregation  of  receivers,  each  one  of  whom  was  verily 
to  partake  of  it  in  faith.  Here,  as  he  taught  in  a  sermon 
on  the  Sacrament  in  1519,  they  were  to  celebrate  and  enjoy 
real  communion ;  communion  with  the  Saviour,  who  feeds 
them  with  His  flesh  and  blood;  communion  with  one 
another,  that  they,  eating  of  one  bread,  should  become  one 
■cake,  one  bread,  one  body  united  in  love;  communion  in 
all  the  benefits  purchased  by  their  Saviour  and  Head;  and 
communion  also  in  all  gifts  of  grace  bestowed  upon  His 
people,  in  all  sufferings  to  be  endured,  and  in  all  virtues 
alive  in  their  hearts.  Above  all,  he  appealed'  to  Christ's 
own  words,  that  He  had  shed  His  blood  for  the  forgiveness 
of  sins.  Here  at  His  holy  Supper,  He  wished  to  dis- 
pense this  forgiveness,  and,  with  it,  eternal  life  to  all 
His  guests ;    He  pledged  it  to .  them  here  by  the  gift  of 


i6o  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

His  own  body.     Luther,  but  only  incidentally,  remarked  in 
this  sermon,  when  speaking  of  the  cup :  '  I  should  be  well 
pleased  to  see  the  Church  decree  in  a  General  Council,  that 
communion  in  hotli  kinds  should  be  given  to  the  laity  as  to 
the   priests.'     Even  then  he  regarded  as  unfounded  that 
idea  of  sacrifice  at  the  mass  which  in  his  later  writings  he 
so  strenuously  denied  and  combated.     At  the  same  time  he 
pointed  out  the  sacrifice  which  Christendom,   and  indeed 
every  Christian,  must  continually  offer  to  God,  namely,  the 
sacrifice  to  God  of  himself  and  all  that  he  possesses,  offered 
with    inward    humility,    prayer,    and   thankfulness.      The 
question  as  to  a  change  of  the  elements,  which  Melancthon 
had  already  denied,  Luther  passed  by  as  an  unnecessary 
subtlety.     Lastly,  together  with  the  sacrifice  supposed  to  be 
offered  by  the  priest,  he  dismissed  also  the  notion  of  a  pecu- 
liar priesthood ;  for  with  the  real  sacrifice  offered  by  Chris- 
tians, as  he  understood  it,  all  became  priests.  Instead  of  the 
difference  theretofore  existing  between  priests  and  laymen, 
he  would  recognise  no  difference  among  Christians  but  such 
as  was  conferred  by  the  public  ministration  of  God's  word 
and  sacrament. 

Whilst  discoursing  in  a  sermon,  in  a  similar  manner,  on 
the  inner  meaning  of  baptism,  he  passed  from  the  vow  of 
baptism  to  the  vow  of  chastity,  so  highly  prized  in  the 
Catholic  Church.  He  admits  this  vow,  but  represenjts  the 
former  one  as  so  immeasurably  higher  and  all-embracing,  as 
to  deprive  the  Church  of  her  grounds  for  attaching  such 
value  to  the  latter. 

He  enlarged  on  moral  and  religious  life  in  general  in  a 
long  sermon  '  On  Good  Works,'  which  he  dedicated  early  in 
1520  to  Duke  John,  the  brother  of  the  Elector.  In  clear 
and  earnest  language  he  explained  how  faith  itself,  on 
which  everything  depended,  was  a  matter  of  innermost 
moral  life  and  conduct,  nay,  the  very  highest  work  con- 
formable to  God's  will ;  and  further,  how  that  same  faith 
cannot  possibly  remain  merely  passive,  but,  on  the  contrary, 


LUTHER'S  FURTHER   WORK,   WRITINGS,  E'TC.     i6i 

the  faithful  Christian  must  himself  become  pleasing  to 
God,  on  whose  grace  he  relies,  must  love  Him  again,  and 
fulfil  His  holy  Will  with  energy  and  activity  in  all  duties  and 
relations  of  life.  These  duties  he  proceeds  to  explain  accord- 
ing to  the  Ten  Commandments.  He  will  not,  however,  have 
the  conscience  further  laden  with  duties  imposed  by  the 
Church,  for  which  no  corresponding  moral  obligation  exists. 
He  tm-ns  then  with  earnest  exhortation  to  rebuke  certain 
common  faults  and  crimes  in  the  public  life  of  his  nation, 
the  gluttony  and  drunkenness,  the  excessive  luxury,  the 
loose  living,  and  the  usury,  which  was  then  the  subject  of 
so  much  complaint.  Against  this  last  practice  he  preached 
a  special  sermon,  in  which,  agreeably  with  the  older  teach- 
ing of  the  Church,  he  spoke  of  all  interest  taken  for  money 
as  questionable,  inasmuch  as  Jesus  had  exhorted  only  to 
lending  without  looking  for  a  return.  The  creditor,  at  any 
rate,  he  said,  should  take  his  share  of  the  risks  to  which 
his  capital,  in  the  hands  of  the  debtor,  was  exposed  from 
accident  or  misadventure. 

The  essence  of  the  Church  of  Christ  he^  placed  in  that 
inner  communion  of  the  faithful  with  one  another  and  their 
heavenly  Head,  on  which  he  dwelt  with  such  emphasis  in 
connection  with  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  For 
the  stability  and  prosperity  of  this  Church  he  considered  no 
externals  necessary  beyond  the  preaching  of  God's  Word  and 
the  administration  of  the  Sacraments,  as  ordained  by 
Christ, — no  Eomish  Popedom,  nor  any  other  hierarchical 
arrangements.  But  in  the  .same  spirit  of  love  and  brotherly 
fellowship  with  which  he  embraced  Hussites,  as  well  as  the 
Eastern  Christians  who  were  denounced  as  Schismatics,  he 
still  wished  to  hold  fast  to  the  visible  community  of  the 
Church  of  Eome,  declining  to  identify  it  with  the  corrupt 
Eomish  Curia.  That  love,  he  said,  should  make  him  assist 
and  sympathise  with  the^  Church,  even  in  her  infirmities 
a^nd  faults. 

He  was  anxious  also  to  fulfil  personally  all  the  minor 


i62  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

duties  incumbent  on  him  as  a  monk  and  a  priest.  And  yet 
the  higher  obhgations  of  his  calling,  that  incessant  activity 
m  proclaiming  the  word,  both  by  speech  and  writing,  were  of 
much  greater  importance  in  his  eyes.  He  performed  with 
diligence  such  duties  as  the  regular  repetition  of  prayers, 
singing,  reading  the  Horce,  and  never  dreamed  of  venturing 
to  omit  them.  He  relates  afterwards,  how  wonderfully  in- 
dustrious he  had  been  in  this  respect.  Often,  if  he  hap- 
pened to  neglect  these  duties  during  the  week,  he  would 
make  up  for  it  in  the  course  of  the  Sunday  from  early 
morning  till  the  evening,  going  without  his  breakfast  and 
dinner.  In  vain  his  friend  Melancthon  represented  to  him 
that,  if  the  neglect  were  such  a  sin,  so  foolish  a  reparation 
would  not  atone  for  it. 

Measures,  however,  were  now  taken  by  the  Eomish 
Church  and  its  representatives,  which,  by  attacking  the 
word,  as  he  preached  it,  drove  him  further  into  the  battle. 

It  will  be  remembered  4hat  the  Papal  bull,  directed 
against  his  theses  on  indulgences,  had  not  actually  men- 
tioned him  by  name.  Contemptuously,  therefore,  as  the 
Pope  had  spoken  of  him  as  an  execrable  heretic,  he  had 
never  yet  uttered  a  formal  public  judgment  upon  him.  Two 
theological  faculties,  those  of  the  universities  of  Cologne 
and  Louvain,  were  the  first  to  pronounce  an  official  con- 
demnation of  him  and  his  writings.  The  latter  were  to  be 
burnt,  and  their  author  compelled  publicly  to  recant.  This 
sentence,  though  pronounced  after  the  disputation  at 
Leipzig,  related  only  to  a  small  collection  of  earlier  writings. 
In  a  published  reply  he  dismissed,  not  without  scorn,  these 
learned  divines,  who,  in  a  spirit  of  vain  self-exaltation  and 
without  the  smallest  grounds,  had  presumed  to  pass 
sentence  on  Christian  verities.  Their  boasting,  he  said, 
was  empty  wind;  their  condemnation  frightened  him  no 
more  than  the  curse  of  a  drunken  woman. 

The  first  official  pronouncement  of  a  German  bishop 
touched  him  more  nearly.     This  was  a  decree,  issued  in 


I 


LUTHER'S  FURTHER   WORK,   WRITINGS,  ETC.     163 

January  1520  by  John,  Bishop  of  Meissen,  from  his  re- 
sidence at  Stolpen.  Herein,  Luther's  one  statement  about 
the  cup,  which  the  Church,  as  he  said,  would  do  well  to 
restore  to  the  laity,  was  picked  out  of  his  Sermon  on  the 
Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  The  people  were  to  be 
warned  against  the  grievous  errors  and  inconveniences 
which  were  bound  to  ensue  from  such  a  step ;  and  the  ser- 
mon was  to  be  suppressed.  Luther  was  now  classed  as  an 
open  ally  of  the  Hussites,  whose  very  ground  of  contention 
was  the  cup.  Duke  George  in  alarm  complained  of  him  to 
the  Elector  Frederick.  It  was  rumoured  about  him  even 
that  he  had  been  born  and  educated  among  the  Bohemians. 

To  this  episcopal-  note,  which  he  ridiculed  in  a  pun, 
Luther  published  a  short  and  pungent  reply  in  Latin  and 
German.  He  was  particularly  indignant  that  this  occasion 
should  have  been  seized  to  tax  his  sermon  with  false 
doctrine,  since  the  wish  he  there  expressed  did  not  contain, 
as  even  his  enemies  must  admit,  anything  contrary  to  any 
dogma  of  the  Church.  For  his  enemies,  no  doubt,  this  one 
point  was  of  more  practical  importance  than  many  devia- 
tions from  orthodoxy  with  which  they  might  have  reproached 
him  in  his  doctrine  of  salvation  ;  for  it  concerned  a  jealously 
guarded  privilege  of  their  priestly  office,  and  was  connected 
with  the  '  Bohemian  heresy.'  As  for  Huss,  however,  Luther 
now  confessed  without  reserve  the  sympathy  he  shared  with 
his  evangelical  teaching.  He  had  learned  to  know  him  better 
since  the  Leipzig  disputation.  He  now  'vsTote  to  Spalatin  : 
'I  have  hitherto,  unconsciously,  taught  everything  that 
Huss  taught,  and  so  did  John  Staupitz,  in  short  we  are  all 
Hussites,  without  knowing  it.  Paul  and  Augustine  are 
also  Hussites.  I  know  not,  for  very  terror,  what  to  thmk 
as  to  God's  fearful  judgments  among  men,  seeing  that  the 
most  palpable  evangelical  truth  known  for  more  than  a 
century,  has  been  burnt  and  condemned,  and  nobody  has 
ever  ventured  to  say  so.' 

On  the  part  of  the  Elector,  Luther  still  continued  to 

m2 


i64  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

reap  the  benefit  of  that  placid  good-will  which  disregarded 
all  attempts,  either  by  friendly  words  or  menaces,  to  set 
that  prince  agamst  him.  Luther  for  this  thanked  him 
publicly,  without  meeting  with  any  demurrer  from  the 
Elector,  as  well  in  a  dedication  of  the  first  part  of  his  new 
work  on  the  Psalms,  which  he  had  sent  to  the  press  early 
in  1519,  as  in  another  prefixed  to  his  tract  on  Christian 
comfort,  already  noticed.  This  last  work  he  had  been 
encouraged  to  write  by  Spalatin,  the  confidant  of  the  sick 
prince  whom  it  was  mtended  to  j)lease.  In  the  dedication 
prefixed  to  the  Psalms,  he  expressed  his  joy  at  hearing  how 
Frederick  had  declared  m  a  conversation  reported  by  Stau- 
pitz,  that  all  sermons,  made  by  man's  wit  and  uttering  man's 
opinions,  were  cold  and  powerless,  and  the  Scriptures  alone 
inspired  with  such  marvellous  power  and  majesty  that  one 
must  needs  say,  '  There  is  something  more  there  than  mere 
Scribe  and  Pharisee ;  there  is  the  finger  of  God ;  '  and  how, 
when  Staupitz  had  concurred  in  the  remark,  the  prince  had 
taken  his  hand  and  said,  '  Promise  me  that  you  will  always 
think  thus.'  Luther  also  thanked  Frederick  for  having,  as 
all  his  subjects  knew^,  taken  more  care  of  his  safety  than 
he  had  done  himself.  Li  his  thoughtlessness,  he  himself 
had  thrown  the  die,  and  had  already  prepared  himself  for 
the  worst,  and  only  hoped  to  be  able  to  retire  into  some 
corner,  when  his  prince  had  come  forward  as  his  chamj^ion. 

At  the  same  time  the  Elector  remained  constant  in 
his  efforts  to  check  the  impetuosity  of  Luther.  We  have 
noticed  how  he  encouraged  him,  through  Spalatin,  to  peace- 
ful work  in  the  service  of  Christian  preaching.  When  the 
episcopal  missive  from  Stolpen  threatened  to  make  the 
storm  break  out  afresh,  he  sent,  by  Spalatin,  an  urgent 
exhortation  to  Luther  to  restrain  his  pen,  and  further 
advised  him  to  send  letters  of  explanation,  in  a  conciliatory 
spu-it,  to  Albert,  Archbishop  of  Magdeburg  and  Mayence, 
and  the  Bishop  of  Merseburg. 

Luther   wrote  to   both   in   a   tone   of  perfect  dignity. 


fUNTVERSIT 

LUTHER'S  FURTHER   WORK,    ^^'''^^^^^^>tft^C-nA^^\^' 

He  begged  them  not  to  lend  an  ear  to  the  complamts"and  "^ 
calumniations  which  were  being  circulated  against  him, 
especially  in  reference  to  giving  the  cup  to  the  laity,  and 
to  the  Papal  power,  until  the  matter  had  been  seriously 
examined.  He  spoke  at  the  same  time  of  malicious 
accusers,  who  on  those  points  held  secretly  the  same 
opinions  as  himself. 

But  from  this  contest  with  the  Bishop  of  Meissen  he 
refused  to  withdraw.  To  Spalatin  he  broke  out  again  in 
February  1520,  in  terms  more  decided  than  any  he  had 
previously  given  vent  to,  and  which  led  people  to  expect  still 
sharper  utterances.  '  Do  not  suppose,'  he  said, '  that  the  cause 
of  Christ  is  to  be  furthered  on  earth  in  sweet  peace :  the 
Word  of  God  can  never  be  set  forth  without  danger  and  dis- 
quiet: it  is  a  Word  of  infinite  majesty,  it  works  great  things, 
and  is  wonderful  among  the  great  and  the  high ;  it  slew,  as 
the  prophet  says  (Psalm  Ixxviii.  31),  the  wealthiest  of  them, 
and  smote  down  the  chosen  ones  of  Israel.  In  this  matter 
one  must  either  renounce  peace  or  deny  the  Word ;  the 
battle  is  the  Lord's,  who  has  not  come  to  bring  peace  into 
the  world.'  Again  he  says  :  '  If  you  would  think  rightly  of 
the  Gospel,  do  not  believe  that  its  cause  can  be  advanced 
without  tumult,  trouble,  and  uproar.  You  cannot  make  a 
pen  out  of  a  sword  :  the  Word  of  God  is  a  sword ;  it  is 
war,  overthrow,  trouble,  destruction,  poison ;  it  meets  the 
children  of  Ephraim,  as  Amos  says,  like  a  bear  on  the  road, 
or  like  a  lioness  in  the  wood.'  Of  himself  he  adds  :  *  I  can- 
not deny  that  I  am  more  violent  than  I  ought  to  be ;  they 
know  it,  and  therefore  should  not  provoke  the  dog.  How 
hard  it  is  to  moderate  one's  heat  and  one's  pen  you  can 
learn  for  yourself.  That  is  the  reason  why  I  was  always 
unwilling  to  be  forced  to  come  forward  in  public ;  and  the 
more  unwilling  I  am,  the  more  I  am  drawn  into  the  contest  ; 
that  this  happens  so  is  due  to  those  scandalous  libels  which 
are  heaped  against  me  and  the  Word  of  God.  So  shameful 
are  they  that,  even  if  my  heat  and  my  pen  did  not  carry 


i66  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

me  away,  a  very  heart  of  stone  would  be  moved  to  seize  a 
weapon,  how  much  more  myself,  who  am  hot  and  whose 
pen  is  not  entirely  blunt.' 

The  two  dignitaries  of  the  Church  answered  not  un- 
graciously. They  merely  expressed  an  opmion  that  he  was 
too  violent,  and  that  his  writings  would  have  a  questionable 
influence  with  the  mass  of  the  people.  They  refrained  from 
giving  judgment  on  the  matter ;  a  proof  that,  in  the  Catholic 
Church  in  Germany,  the  questions  raised  by  Luther  could 
not  then  have  been  considered  of  such  importance  as  the 
upholders  of  the  strict  Papal  system  maintamed  and  desired. 
Even  Albert,  the  Cardinal,  Archbishop,  and  Primate  of  the 
German  Church,  ventured  to  speak  of  the  whole  question 
about  the  Divme  or  merely  human  right  of  the  Papacy  as 
an  insignificant  affair,  which  had  but  little  to  do  with  real 
Christianity,  and  therefore  should  never  have  become  the 
occasion  of  such  passionate  dispute. 

From  Eome  was  now  awaited  the  supreme  judicial 
decision  as  to  Luther  and  his  cause.  The  Pope  had  already 
in  1518  indicated  clearly  enough  to  Frederick  the  Wise  in 
what  sense  he  intended  to  give  this  decision.  But  it  kept 
on  being  delayed,  because,  on  the  one  hand,  it  still  appeared 
necessary  to  act  with  caution  and  consideration,  and,  on 
the  other,  because  Koman  arrogance  continued  to  under- 
estimate the  danger  of  the  German  movement.  Meanwhile 
Eck,  by  a  report  of  his  disputation  and  by  letters  had 
stirred  the  fire  at  Rome.  The  theologians  of  Cologne  and 
Louvain  worked  in  the  same  direction,  and  called  on  the 
whole  Dominican  Order  to  assist  them  with  their  influence. 
The  Papal  pretensions  which  Luther  had  disputed  were 
now  for  the  first  time  proclaimed  in  all  their  fulness  of 
audacity  and  exaggeration.  Luther's  old  opponent  Prierias, 
in  a  new  pamphlet,  extended  them  to  the  temporal  as  well 
as  the  spiritual  sovereignty  of  the  world ;  the  Pope,  he 
said,  was  head  of  the  Universe.  Eck  now  devoted  an  entire 
treatise  to  justifying  the  Divine  right  of  the  Papal  primacy, 


LUTHER'S  FURTHER  WORK,   WRITINGS,  ETC.     167 

resting  his  proofs  boldly,  and  without  any  attempt  at  critical 
inquiry,  on  spurious  old  documents.  With  this  book  he 
hastened  in  February  1520  to  Rome,  in  order  personally 
to  push  forward  and  assist  in  publishing  the  bull  of  excom- 
munication which  was  to  demolish  his  enemy  and  extinguish 
the  flame  he  had  kindled. 

But  Luther's  work,  in  proportion  as  it  advanced  and 
became  bolder,  had  stirred  already  the  minds  of  the  people 
both  wider  and  deeper.  Opponents  of  Eome  who  had  risen 
up  against  her  in  other  quarters,  on  other  grounds,  and 
with  other  weapons,  now  ranged  themselves  upon  his  side. 
Among  all  alike  the  ardour  of  battle  grew  the  more  powerful 
and  violent,  the  more  it  was  attempted  to  smother  them 
with  edicts  of  arbitrary  power. 


1 68  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

ALLIANCE    WITH    THE    HUMANISTS    AND    THE    NOBILITY. 

We  have  already  seen  how  astonished  Miltitz  was  at  the 
sympathy  with  Luther  which  he  found  among  all  classes 
of  the  German  people.  The  growth  of  this  sympathy 
is  shown  in  particular  by  the  increasing  number  of  printed 
editions  of  his  writings  ;  the  perfect  freedom  then  enjoyed 
by  the  press  contributed  largely  to  their  wide  circulation. 
In  1520  alone  there  were  more  than  a  hundred  editions  of 
Luther's  works  in  German.  Though  the  ordmary  book- 
trade  as  now  carried  on  was  then  unknown,  there  were  a 
multitude  of  colporteurs  actively  employed  in  going  with 
books  from  house  to  house,  some  of  them  merely  in  the 
interests  of  their  trade,  others  also  as  emissaries  of  those 
who  were  friends  of  the  cause,  thus  intended  to  be  furthered. 
As  reading  was  a  difficult  matter  to  the  masses,  and  even  to 
many  of  the  higher  classes,  there  were  travelling  students 
who  went  about  to  different  places,  and  proffered  their 
assistance.  The  earnest,  deeply  instructive  contents  of 
Luther's  small  popular  tracts  met  the  needs  of  both  the 
educated  and  uneducated  classes,  in  a  manner  never  done 
by  any  other  religious  writings  of  that  time,  and  served  to 
stimulate  their  appetite  for  more.  And  to  this  was  added 
the  strong  impression  produced  directly  on  their  minds  by 
the  elementary  exposition  of  his  doctrine,  irreconcilable 
with  all  notions  of  the  Church  system  hitherto  prevailing, 
and  stigmatised  by  his  enemies  as  poison.  All,  in  short, 
that  this  condemned  heretic  wrote,  became  dear  to  the 
hearts  of  the  people. 


ALLIANCE  WITH  HUMANISTS  AND  NOBILITY.  169 

Luther  found  now,  moreover,  most  valuable  allies  in  the 
leading  champions  of  that  Humanistic  movemenj),  the  im- 
portance of  which,  as  regards  the  culture  of  the  priesthood 
and  the  religious  and  ecclesiastical  development  of  that  time, 
we  had  occasion  to  notice  during  Luther's  residence  at  the 
university  of  Erfurt.  That  Humanism,  more  than  any- 
thing else,  represented  the  general  aspiration  of  the  age  to 
attain  a  higher  standard  of  learning  and  culture.  The 
alliance  between  Luther  and  the  Humanists  inaugurated 
and  symbolised  the  union  between  this  culture  and  the 
Evangelical  Keformation. 

Luther,  even  before  entering  the  convent,  had  formed  a 
friendship  with  at  least  some  of  the  young  'poets,'  or 
enthusiasts  of  this  new  learning.  Later  on,  when,  after  the 
inward  struggles  and  heart- sear chings  of  those  gloomy  years 
of  monastic  experience,  the  light  dawned  upon  him  of  his 
Scriptural  doctrine  of  salvation,  we  find  him  expressing  his 
sympathy  and  reverence  for  the  two  leading  spirits  of  the 
movement,  Eeuchlin  and  Erasmus  ;  and  this  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  he  never  approved  the  method  of  defence 
adopted  by  the  supporters  of  the  former,  nor  could  ever 
conceal  his  dislike  of  the  attitude  taken  up  by  Erasmus  in 
regard  to  theology  and  religion. 

Meanwhile,  such  Humanists  as  wished  to  enjoy  the  ut- 
most possible  freedom  for  their  own  learned  pursuits  flocked 
around  Eeuchlin  against  his  literary  enemies,  and  cared 
very  little  about  the  authorities  of  the  Church.  The  bold 
monk  and  his  party  excited  neither  their  interest  nor  their 
concern.  Many  of  them  thought  of  him,  no  doubt,  when 
he  was  engaged  in  the  heat  of  the  contest  about  indulgences, 
as  did  Ulrich  von  Hütten,  wdio  wrote  to  a  friend  :  '  A  quarrel 
has  broken  out  at  Wittenberg  between  two  hot-headed 
monks,  who  are  screaming  and  shouting  against  each 
other.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  they  will  eat  one  another  up.' 
To  such  men  the  theological  questions  at  issue  seemed  n'bt 
worth  consideration.     At  the  same  time  they  took  care  to 


I70  THE  BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

pay  all  necessary  respect  to  the  princes  of  the  Church,  who 
had  shown  favour  to  them  personally  and  to  then  learnmg, 
and  did  homage  to  them,  notwithstanding  much  that  must 
have  shocked  them  in  their  conduct  as  ecclesiastics.  Thus 
Hütten  did  not  scruple  to  enter  the  service  of  the  same 
Archbishop  Albert  who  had  opened  the  great  traffic  in 
indulgences  in  Germany,  but  who  was  also  a  patron  of 
literature  and  art,  and  was  only  too  glad  to  be  recognised 
publicly  by  an  Erasmus.  We  hear  nothing  of  any  remon- 
strances made  to  him  by  Erasmus  himself.  In  the  same 
spirit  that  dictated  the  above  remark  of  Hütten,  Mosellanus, 
who  opened  with  a  speech  the  disputation  at  Ijeipzig,  wrote 
to  Erasmus  during  the  preparations  for  that  event.  There 
will  be  a  rare  battle,  he  said,  and  a  bloody  one,  coming  off 
between  two  Scholastics ;  ten  such  men  as  Democritus 
would  find  enough  to  laugh  over  till  they  were  tired.  More- 
over, Luther's  fundamental  conception  of  religion,  with  his 
doctrine  of  man's  sinfulness  and  need  of  salvation,  so  far 
from  corresponding,  was  in  direct  antagonism  with  that 
Humanistic  view  of  life  which  seemed  to  have  originated 
from  the  devotion  to  classical  antiquity,  and  to  revive  the 
proud,  self-satisfied,  independent  spirit  of  heathendom. 
Even  in  an  Erasmus  Luther  had  thought  he  perceived  an 
inability  to  appreciate  his  new  doctrine. 

Melancthon's  arrival  at  Wittenberg  was,  in  this  respect, 
an  event  of  the  first  importance.  This  highly-gifted  young 
man,  who  had  united  in  his  person  all  the  learning  and 
culture  of  his  time,  whose  mind  had  unfolded  in  such 
beauty  and  richness,  and  whose  personal  urbanity  had  so 
endeared  him  to  men  of  culture  wherever  he  went,  now 
found  his  true  happiness  in  that  gospel  and  in  that  path  of 
grace  which  Luther  had  been  the  first  to  make  known. 
And  whilst  offering  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to  Luther, 
he  continued  working  with  energy  in  his  own  particular 
sphere,  kept  up  his  intimacy  with  his  fellow-labourers 
therein,  and  won  their  respect  and  admiration.    Humanists 


ALLIANCE  WITH  HUMANISTS  AND  NOBILITY.  171 

cO-t  a  distance,  meanwhile,  must  have  noticed  the  fact,  that 
the  most  violent  attacks  against  Luther  proceeded  from 
those  very  quarters,  as  for  instance,  from  Hoogstraten,  and 
afterwards  from  the  theological  faculty  at  Cologne,  where 
Eeuchlin  had  been  the  most  bitterly  persecuted.  At  length 
the  actual  details  of  the  disputation  between  Luther  and 
Eck  opened  men's  eyes  to  the  magnitude  of  the  contest 
there  waged  for  the  highest  interests  of  Christian  life  and 
true  Christian  knowledge,  and  to  the  greatness  of  the  man 
who  had  ventured  single-handed  to  wage  it. 

At  Erfurt  Luther  had  found  already  in  the  spring  of 
1518,  on  his  return  from  the  meeting  of  his  Order  at 
Heidelberg,  in  pleasing  contrast  to  the  displeasure  he  had 
aroused  among  his  old  teachers  there,  a  spirit  prevailing 
among  the  students  of  the  university,  which  gave  him  hope 
that  true  theology  would  pass  from  the  old  to  the  young, 
just  as  once  Christianity,  rejected  by  the  Jews,  passed  from 
them  to  the  heathen.  Those  well-wishers  and  advisers  who 
took  his  part  at  Augsburg,  when  he  had  to  go  thither  to  meet 
Caietan,  were  friends  of  Humanistic  learning.  Among  the 
earliest  of  those,  outside  Wittenberg,  who  united  that  learning 
with  the  new  tendency  of  religious  teaching,  we  find  some 
prominent  citizens  of  the  flourishing  town  of  Nuremberg, 
where,  as  we  have  seen,  Luther's  old  friend  Link  was  also 
actively  engaged.  Already  before  the  contest  about  in- 
dulgences broke  out,  the  learned  jurist  Scheuerl  of  that 
place  had  made  friends  with  Luther,  whom  the  next  year 
he  speaks  of  as  the  most  celebrated  man  in  Germany.  The 
most  important  of  the  Humanists  there,  Willibald  Pirkheimer, 
a  patrician  of  high  esteem  and  an  influential  counsellor, 
and  who  had  once  held  local  military  command,  corre- 
sponded with  Luther,  and  after  learning  from  him  the  pro- 
gress of  his  views  and  studies  concerning  the  Papal  power, 
made  his  Leipzig  opponent  the  object  of  a  bitter  anony- 
mous satire,  *  The  Polished  Corner'  (Eck).  Another 
learned  Nüremberger,  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate,  Lazarus 


172  THE  BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

Spengler,  was  on  terms  of  close  Christian  fellowship  with 
Luther :  he  published  in  1519  a  *  Defence  and  Christian 
Answer,'  which  contained  a  powerful  and  worthy  vindication 
of  Luther's  popular  tracts.  Albert  Dürer  also,  the  famous 
painter,  took  a  deep  interest  in  Luther's  evangelical  doctrine, 
and  revered  him  as  a  man  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Among  the  number  of  theologians  who  ranked  next  to 
Erasmus,  the  well-known  John  Oecolampadius,  then  a 
preacher  at  Augsburg,  and  almost  of  the  same  age  as 
Luther,  came  forward  in  his  su^^port,  towards  the  end 
of  1519,  with  a  pamphlet  directed  against  Eck.  Erasmus 
himself  in  1518,  at  least  in  ä  private  letter  to  Luther's 
friend  Lange  at  Erfurt,  of  which  the  latter  we  may  be  sure 
did  not  leave  Luther  in  ignorance,  declared  that  Luther's 
theses  were  bound  to  commend  themselves  to  all  good  men, 
almo&t  without  exception ;  that  the  present  Papal  domina- 
tion was  a  plague  to  Christendom ;  the  only  question  was 
whether  tearing  open  the  wound  would  do  any  good,  and 
whether  it  was  not  conceivable  that  the  matter  could  be 
carried  through  without  an  actual  rupture. 

Luther,  on  his  part,  approached  Eeuchlin  and  Erasmus 
by  letter.  To  the  former  he  wrote,  at  the  urgent  entreaty 
of  Melancthon,  in  December  1518,  to  the  latter  in  the 
following  March.  Both  letters  are  couched  in  the  refined 
language  befitting  these  learned  men,  and  particularly 
Erasmus,  and  contain  warm  expressions  of  respect  and 
deference,  though  in  a  tone  of  perfect  dignity,  and  free 
from  the  hyperboles  to  which  Erasmus  was  usually  treated 
by  his  common  admirers.  At  the  same  time  Luther  was 
careful  indeed  to  conceal  the  other  and  less  favourable  side 
of  his  estimate  of  Erasmus,  which  he  had  already  formed 
in  his  own  mind  and  expressed  to  his  friends.  We  can  see 
how  bent  he  was,  notwithstanding,  upon  a  closer  intimacy 
with  that  distinguished  man. 

Eeuchlin,  then  an  old  man,  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  Luther  and  the  questions  he  had  raised.     He  even 


ALLIANCE   WITH  HUMANISTS  AND  NOBILITY.  173 


lUBALDrPIRKEYMHERI-  EFFIGIeS 
•  ÄETÄri5-5VAE'ANNO'Liii'     , 
iVIVlTV^-iNGEKioCAETrRA-MOKnS  • 
-EKYKT-       , 


Fig.  19.— W.  Pirkheimee.    (From  a  Portrait  by  Albert  Dürer.) 


174  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

sought  to  alienate  his  nephew  Melancthon  from  him,  by 
bidding  him  abstam  from  so  perilous  an  enterprise. 

Erasmus  replied  with  characteristic  evasion.  He  had 
not  yet  read  Luther's  writings,  but  he  advised  everyone  to 
read  them  before  crying  them  down  to  the  people.  He 
himself  believed  that  more  was  to  be  gained  by  quietness 
and  moderation  than  by  violence,  and  he  felt  bound  to 
warn  him  in  the  sph'it  of  Christ  agamst  all  intemperate  and 
passionate  language ;  but  he  did  not  wish  to  admonish 
Luther  what  to  do,  but  only  to  continue  steadfastly  what  he 
was  doing  already.  The  chief  thought  to  which  he  gives 
expression  is  the  earnest  hope  that  the  movement  kindled 
by  Luther's  writings  would  not  give  occasion  to  opponents 
to  accuse  and  suppress  the  'noble  arts  and  letters.'  A 
regard  for  these,  which  indeed  were  the  object  of  his  own 
high  calling,  was  always  of  paramount  importance  in  his 
eyes.  Not  content  with  attacking  by  means  of  ridicule  the 
abuses  in  the  Church,  Erasmus  took  a  genuine  interest  in 
the  improvement  of  its  general  condition,  and  in  the  eleva- 
tion and  refinement  of  moral  and  religious  life,  as  well  as  of 
theological  science ;  and  the  high  esteem  he  enjoyed  made 
him  an  influential  man  among  even  the  superior  clergy  and 
the  princes  of  the  Church.  But  from  the  first  he  recognised, 
as  he  says  in  his  letter  to  Lange,  and  possibly  better  than 
Luther  himself,  the  difficulties  and  dangers  of  attacking 
the  Church  system  on  the  points  selected  by  Luther.  And 
when  Luther  boldly  anticipated  the  disturbances  which  the 
Word  must  cause  in  the  world,  and  dwelt  on  Christ's  saying 
that  He  had  come  to  bring  a  sword,  Erasmus  shrank  back 
in  terror  at  the  thought  o^  tumult  and  destruction.  Con- 
formably with  the  whok  bent  of  his  natural  disposition  and 
character,  he  adhered  anxiously  to  the  peaceful  course  of 
his  work  and  the  pursuit  of  his  intellectual  pleasures. 
Questions  involving  deep  principles,  such  as  those  of  the 
Divine  right  of  the  Papacy,  the  absolute  character  of 
Church  authority,  or  the  freedom  of  Christian  judgment,  as 


ALLIANCE  WITH  HUMANISTS  AND  NOBILITY.  175 

founded  on  the  Bible,  he  regarded  from  aloof;  notwith- 
standing that  silence  or  concealment  towards  either  party, 
when  once  these  principles  were  publicly  put  in  question, 
was  bound  to  be  construed  as  a  denial  of  the  truth. 

We  shall  see  how  this  same  standpoint,  from  which  this 
learned  man  still  retained  his  inward  sympathy  with  Church 
matters,  dictated  further  his  attitude  towards  Luther  and 
the  Eeformation.  For  the  present,  Luther  had  to  thank 
the  good  opinion  of  Erasmus,  cautiously  expressed  though 
it  was,  for  a  great  advancement  of  his  cause.  It  was 
valuable  to  Luther  in  regard  to  those  who  had  no  personal 
knowledge  of  him,  as  giving  them  conclusive  proof  that  his 
character  and  conduct  were  irreproachable.  His  influence 
is  apparent  in  the  answ^er  of  the  Archbishop  Albert  to 
Luther,  in  its  tone  of  gracious  reticence,  and  its  remarks 
about  needless  contention.  Erasmus  had  written  some 
time  before  to  the  Archbishop,  contrasting  the  excesses 
charged  against  Luther  with  those  of  the  Papal  party,  and 
denouncing  the  corruptions  of  the  Church,  and  particularly 
the  lack  of  preachers  of  the  gospel.  Much  to  the  annoy- 
ance of  Erasmus,  this  letter  was  published,  and  it  worked 
more  in  Luther's  favour  than  he  wished. 

Those  hopes  which  Luther  had  placed  in  the  young 
students  at  Erfurt  were  shortly  fulfilled  by  the  so-called 
'  poets '  beginning  now  to  read  and  expound  the  New 
Testament.  The  theology,  which,  in  its  Scholastic  and 
monastic  form,  they  regarded  with  contempt,  attracted 
them  as  knowledge  of  the  Divine  Word.  Justus  Jonas, 
Luther's  junior  by  ten  years,  a  friend  of  Eoban  Hess,  and 
one  of  the  most  talented  of  the  circle  of  young  '  poets,' 
now  exchanged  for  theology  the  study  of  the  law%  which  hj 
had  already  begun  to  teach.  To  his  respect  for  Erasmus 
was  now  added  an  enthusiastic  admiration  for  Luther,  th^ 
courageous  Erfurt  champion  of  this  new  evangelical 
doctrine.  A  close  intimacy  sprang  up  between  Jonas  and 
Luther,  as  also  betw^een  Jonas  and  Luther's  friend  Lange. 


176  THE  BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

Erasmus  had  persuaded  him  to  take  up  theology ;  Luther, 
on  hearing  of  it  in  1520,  congratulated  him  on  taking 
refuge  from  the  stormy  sea  of  law  in  the  asylum  of  the 
Scriptures. 

None  of  the  old  Erfurt  students,  however,  had  culti- 
vated Luther's  friendship  more  zealously  than  Crotus,  his 
former  companion  at  that  university ;  and  this  even  from 
Italy,  where  his  sympathies  with  Luther  had  been  stirred 
by  the  news  from  Germany,  and  where  he  had  learned  to 
realise,  from  the  evidence  of  his  eyes,  the  full  extent  of  the 
scandals  and  evils  against  which  Luther  was  waging  war. 
He,  who  in  the  '  Epistolae  Virorum  Obscurorum,'  had  failed 
to  exhibit  in  his  satire  the  solemn  earnestness  which  recom- 
mended itself  to  Luther's  taste  and  judgment,  now  openly 
declared  his  concurrence  with  Luther's  fundamental  ideas 
of  religion  and  theology,  and  his  high  appreciation  of  Scrip- 
ture and  of  the  Scriptural  doctrine  of  salvation.  He  wrote 
repeatedly  to  him,  reminding  him  of  their  days  together  at 
Erfurt,  telling  him  about  the  *  Plague-chair  '  at  Kome,  and 
the  intrigues  carried  on  there  by  Eck,  and  encouraging  him 
to  persevere  in  his  work.  Expressions  common  to  the  '  poets ' 
of  his  university  days  were  curiously  mingled  in  his  letters 
with  others  of  a  religious  kind.  He  would  like  to  glorify, 
as  a  father  of  their  fatherland,  worthy  of  a  golden  statue 
and  an  annual  festival,  his  friend  Martin,  who  had  been  the 
first  to  venture  to  liberate  the  people  of  God,  and  show 
them  the  way  to  true  piety.  Not  only  from  Italy,  but  also 
after  his  return,  he  employed  his  characteristic  literary 
activity,  by  means  of  anonymous  pamphlets,  in  the  service 
of  Luther.  It  was  he  who,  towards  the  end  of  1519,  sent 
from  Italy  to  Luther  and  Melancthon  at  Wittenberg,  the 
Humanist  theologian,  John  Hess,  afterwards  the  reformer 
of  the  Church  at  Breslau.  Crotus  himself  returned  in  the 
spring  of  1520  to  Germany. 

Here  these  Humanist  friends  of  the  Lutheran  movement 
had  already  been  joined  by  Crotus'  personal  friend,  Ulrich 


ALLIANCE  WITH  HUMANISTS  AND  NOBILITY.  177 

von  Hütten,  who  not  only  could  wield  his  pen  with  more 
vigour  and  acuteness  than  almost  all  his  associates,  but  who 
declared  himself  ready  to  take  up  the  sword  for  the  cause 


Iricbmngtttteit. 


Fig.  20.— Ulrich  von  Hctten.     (From  an  old  woodcut.) 

he  defended,  and  to  call  in  powerful  allies  of  his  own  class 
to  the  fight.  He  sprang  from  an  old  Franconian  family, 
the  heirs,  not  indeed  of  much  wealth  or  property,  but  of  an 
old  knightly  spirit  of  independence.     Hatred  of  monasticism 


178  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

and  all  that  belonged  to  it,  must  have  been  nursed  by  him 
from  youth;  for  having  been  placed,  when  a  boy,  in  a 
convent,  he  ran  away  with  the  aid  of  Crotus,  when  only 
sixteen.  Sharing  the  literary  tastes  of  his  friend,  he  learned 
to  write  with  proficiency  the  poetical  and  rhetorical  Latin  of 
the  Humanists  of  that  time.  In  spite  of  all  his  irregularities, 
adventures,  and  unsettlement  of  habits,  he  had  preserved 
an  elastic  and  elevated  turn  of  mind,  desirous  of  serving 
the  interests  of  a  *  free  and  noble  learning,'  and  a  knightly 
courage,  which  urged  him  to  the  fight  with  a  frankness 
and  straightforwardness  not  often  found  among  his  fellow- 
Humanists.  Whilst  laughing  at  Luther's  controversy  as  a 
petty  monkish  quarrel,  he  himself  dealt  a  heavy  blow  to  the 
traditional  pretensions  of  the  Papacy  by  the  republication  of 
a  work  by  the  famous  Italian  Humanist  Laurentius  Yalla, 
long  since  dead,  on  the  pretended  donation  of  Constantine, 
in  which  the  writer  exposed  the  forgery  of  the  edict  pur- 
porting to  ^rant  the  possession  of  Eome,  Italy,  and  indeed 
the  entire  Western  world  to  the  Koman  see.  This  work 
Hütten  actually  dedicated  to  Pope  Leo  himself.  But  what 
distinguishod  this  knight  and  Humanist  above  all  the  others 
who  were  contending  on  behalf  of  learning  and  against  the 
oppressions  and  usurpations  of  the  Church  and  monasticism, 
were  his  thoroughly  German  sympathies,  and  his  zeal  for 
the  honour  and  independence  of  his  nation.  He  saw  her 
enslaved  in  ecclesiastical  bondage  to  the  Papal  see,  and  at 
the  mercy  of  the  avarice  and  caprice  of  Kome.  He  heard 
with  indignation  how  scornfully  the  *  rough  and  simple 
Germans'  were  spoken  of  in  Italy,  how  even  on  German 
soil  the  Eoman  emissaries  openly  paraded  their  arrogance, 
how  some  Germans,  unworthy  of  the  name,  pandered  to 
such  scorn  and  contempt  by  a  cringing  servility  which 
made  them  crouch  before  the  Papal  chair  and  sue  for 
favour  and  office.  He  warned  them  to  prepare  for  a  mighty 
outburst  of  German  liberty,  already  well-nigh  strangled  by 
Bome.    At  the  same  time  he  denounced  the  vices  of  his 


ALLIANCE  WITH  HUMANISTS  AND  NOBILITY,  lyg 

own  countrymen,  particularly  that  of  drunkenness,  and 
the  proneness  to  luxury  and  usurious  dealing  in  trade  and 
commerce,  all  of  which,  as  we  have  seen,  had  been  com- 
plained of  by  Luther.  Nor  less  than  of  the  honour  of 
Germany  herself,  was  he  jealous  of  the  honour  and  power 
of  the  Empire.  In  all  that  he  did  he  was  guided,  perhaps 
involuntarily,  but  in  a  special  degree,  by  the  principles  and 
interests  of  knighthood.  His  order  was  indebted  to  the 
Empire  for  its  chief  support,  although  the  imperial  authority 
no  less  than  that  of  his  own  class,  had  sunk  in  a  great 
measure  through  the  increasing  power  of  the  different 
princes.  In  the  prosperous  middle  class  of  Germany  he 
saw  the  spirit  of  trade  prevailing  to  an  excess,  with  its 
attendant  evils.  In  the  firmly- settled  regulations  of  law 
and  order,  which  had  been  established  in  Germany  with 
great  trouble  at  the  end  of  the  middle  ages,  he  felt  most 
out  of  his  element :  he  longed  rather  to  resort  to  the  old 
method  of  force  whenever  he  saw  justice  trampled  on.  And 
in  this  respect  also  Hütten  proved  true  to  the  traditions  of 
knighthood. 

But  in  the  material  power  required  to  give  effect  to 
his  ideas  of  reform  -in  the  kindred  spheres  of  politics  and 
of  the  Church  in  her  external  aspect,  Hütten  was  entirely 
wanting.  More  than  this,  we  fail  to  find  in  him  any  clear 
and  positive  plans  or  projects  of  reform,  nor  any  such  calm 
and  searching  insight  into  the  relations  and  problems  before 
him  as  was  indispensable  for  that  object.  His  call,  how- 
ever rousing  and  stirring  it  was,  died  away  in  the  distance 
of  time  and  the  dimness  of  uncertainty. 

Hütten  found,  however,  an  active  and  powerful  friend, 
and  one  versed  in  war  and  politics,  in  Francis  von  Sickingen, 
the  '  knight  of  manly,  noble,  and  courageous  spirit,'  as  an 
old  chronicler  describes  him.  He  was  the  owner  of  fine 
estates,  among  them  the  strong  castles  of  Landstuhl  near 
Kaiserslautern,  and  Ebernburg  near  Kreuznach,  and  had 
already,  in   a   number  of   battles  conducted  on   his  own 

n2 


i8o  THE   BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

account  and  to  redress  the  wrongs  of  others,  given  ample 
proof  of  his  energy  and  skill  in  raising  hosts  of  rustic 
soldiery,  and  leading  them  with  reckless  valour,  in  pursuit 
of  his  objects,  to  the  fray.  Hütten  won  him  over  to  support 
the  cause  of  Eeuchlin,  still  entangled  in  a  prosecution  by 
his  old  accusers  of  heresy,  Hoogstraten  and  the  Dominicans 
at  Cologne.  A  sentence  of  the  Bishop  of  Spires,  rejecting  the 
charges  of  his  opponents,  and  mulcting  them  in  the  costs  of 
the  suit,  had  been  annulled,  at  their  instance,  by  the  Pope 
Against  them  and  against  the  Dominican  Order  in  particular, 
Sickingen  now  declared  his  open  enmity,  and  his  sympathy 
with  the  '  good  old  doctor  Eeuchlin.'  In  spite  of  delay 
and  resistance,  they  were  forced  to  pay  the  sum  demanded. 
Meanwhile,  no  doubt  under  the  influence  of  his  friend 
Crotus,  Hutten's  eyes  w^ere  opened  about  the  monk  Luther. 
During  a  visit  in  January  1520  to  Sickingen  at  his  castle  of 
Landstuhl,  he  consulted  with  .him  as  to  the  help  to  be  given 
to  the  man  now^  threatened  with  excommunication,  and 
Sickingen  offered  him  his  protection.  Hütten  at  the  same 
time  proceeded  to  launch  the  most  violent  controversial 
diatribes  and  satires  against  Rome ;  one  in  particular, 
called  '  The  Eoman  Trinity,'  wherein  he_ detailed  in  striking 
triplets  the  long  series  of  Eomish  pretensions,  trickeries, 
and  vexatious  abuses.  At  Easter  he  held  a  personal  inter- 
view^ at  Bamberg  with  Crotus,  on  his  return  from  Italy. 

For  the  furtherance  of  their  objects  and  desires,  in 
respect  to  the  affairs  of  Germany  and  the  Church  these 
two  knights  placed  high  hopes  in  the  new  young  Emperor, 
who  had  left  Spain,  and  on  the  1st  of  July  landed 
on  the  coast  of  the  Netherlands.  Sickingen  had  earned 
merit  m  his  election.  He  had  hoped  to  find  in  him 
a  truly  German  Emperor,  in  contrast  to  King  Francis 
of  France,  w^ho  was  a  competitor  for  the  imperial  crown. 
The  Pope,  as  w^e  have  seen,  had  opposed  his  election ;  his 
chief  advocate,  on  the  contrary,  was  Luther's  fiiend,  the 
Elector   Frederick.      Support   was   also   looked   for   from 


ALLIANCE  WITH  HUMANISTS  AND  NOBILITY.   ,8i 

Charles'  brother  Ferdmand,  as  being  a  friend  of  arts  and 
letters.     Hütten  even  hoped  to  obtain  a  place  at  his  court. 
On  this  side,  therefore,  and  from  these  quarters,  Luther 
was  offered  a  friendly  hand. 


FRANGLSGV^-VQN  -^ICKINGeFT^ 


Fig.  21.  -Feaxcis  von  SiciaxGEN.     (From  an  old  engraving.) 


We  hear  Hütten  first  mentioned  by  Luther  in  February 
1520,  m  connection  with  his  edition  of  the  work  of  Vaha 
This  work,  though  pubhshed  two  years  before,  had  been 


i82  THE  BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

made  known  to  Luther  then,  for  the  first  time,  by  a  friend. 
It  had  awakened  his  keenest  interest ;  the  falsehoods  ex- 
posed in  its  pages  confirmed  him  in  his  opinion  that  the 
Pope  was  the  real  Antichrist. 

Shortly  after,  a  letter  from  Hütten  reached  Melancthon, 
containing  Sickingen's  offer  of  assistance  ;  a  similar  com- 
mmiication  forwarded  to  him  some  weeks  before,  had  never 
reached  its  destination.  Sickmgen  had  charged  Hütten 
to  write  to  Luther,  but  Hütten  was  cautious  enough 
to  make  Melancthon  the  medium,  in  order  not  to  let 
his  dealings  with  Luther  be  known.  Sickingen,  he  wrote, 
invited  Luther,  if  menaced  with  danger,  to  stay  with  him, 
and  was  willing  to  do  what  he  could  for  him.  Hütten  added 
that  Sickingen  might  be  able  to  do  as  much  for  Luther  as 
he  had  done  for  Keuchlin ;  but  Melancthon  would  see  for 
himself  what  Sickingen  had  then  written  to  the  monks. 
He  spoke,  with  an  air  of  mystery,  of  negotiation^  of  the 
highest  importance  between  Sickingen  and  himself;  he 
hoped  it  would  fare  badly  with  the  Barbarians,  that  is,  the 
enemies  of  learning, — and  all  those  who  sought  to  bring 
them  under  the  Eomish  yoke.  With  such  objects  in  view,  he 
had  hopes  even  of  Ferdinand's  support.  Crotus,  meanwhile, 
after  his  interview  with  Hütten  at  Bamberg,  advised  Luther 
not  to  despise  the  kindness  of  Sickingen,  the  great  leader 
of  the  German  nobility.  It  was  rumoured  that  Luther,  if 
driven  from  Wittenberg,  would  take  refuge  among  the 
Bohemians.  Crotus  earnestly  warned  him  against  doing  so. 
His  enemies,  he  said,  might  force  him  to  do  so,  knowing,  as 
they  did,  how  hateful  the  name  of  Bohemian  was  in  Ger- 
many. Hütten  himself  wrote  also  to  Luther,  encouraging 
him,  in  pious  Scriptural  language,  to  stand  firm  and  perse- 
vere in  working  with  him  for  the  liberation  of  their  father- 
land. He  repeated  to  him  the  invitation  of  N.,  (he  did  not 
mention  his  name,)  and  assured  him  that  the  latter  would 
defend  him  with  vigour  against  his  enemies  of  every  kind. 

Another  invitation,  at  the  same  time,  and  of  the  same 


ALLIANCE   WITH  HUMANISTS  AND  NOBILITY.   183 

purport,  camo  to  Luther  from  the  knight  Silvester  von 
Schauenburg.  He  too  had  hoard  that  Luther  was  goin«-  to 
the  Bohemians.  He  was  wilhng,  however,  to  protect  him 
from  his  enemies,  as  were  also  a  hundred  other  nobles  whom 
with  God's  help  he  would  bring  with  him,  until  his  cause 
was  decided  in  a  right  and  Christian  manner. 

Whether  Luther  really  entertained  the  thought  of  flying 
to  Bohemia,  we  cannot  determine  with  certainty.  But  we 
know  with  what  seriousness,  as  early  as  the  autumn  of  1518, 
after  he  had  refused  to  retract  to  the  Papal  legate,  he 
anticipated  the  duty  and  necessity  of  leaving  Wittenberg. 
How  much  more  forcibly  must  the  thoughts  have  re- 
curred to  him,  when  the  news  arrived  of  the  impending 
decision  at  Eome,  of  the  warning  received  from  there  by 
the  Elector,  and  of  the  i)rotest  uttered  even  in  Germany, 
and  by  such  a  prince  as  Duke  George  of  Saxony,  against 
any  further  toleration  of  his  proceedings.  The  refuge  which 
Luther  had  previously  looked  for  at  Paris  was  no  longer 
to  be  hoped  for.  Since  the  Leipzig  disputation  he  had 
advanced  in  his  doctrines,  and  especially  in  his  avowed 
support  of  Huss,  far  beyond  what  the  university  of  Paris 
either  liked  or  would  endure. 

Such  then  was  Luther's  position  when  he  received  these 
invitations.  They  must  have  ^stirred  him  as  distinct  mes- 
sages from  above.  The  letters  in  which  he  replied  to  them 
have  not  been  preserved  to  us.  We  hear,  however,  that 
he  wrote  to  Hütten,  saying  tlmt  he  placed  greater  hopes 
in  Sickingen  than  in  an}^  prince  under  heaven.  Schauen- 
burg and  Sickingen,  he  says,  had  freed  him  from  the  fear  of 
man  ;  he  would  now  have  to  withstand  the  rage  of  demons. 
He  wished  that  even  the  Pope  would  note  the  fact  that  he 
could  now  find  protection  from  all  his  thunderbolts,  not 
indeed  in  Bohemia,  but  in  the  very  heart  of  Germany ;  and 
that,  under  this  protection,  he  could  break  loose  against  the 
Bomanists  in  a  very  different  fashion  to  what  he  could  now 
do  in  his  official  position. 


1 84  THE   BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

As  he  reviewed,  in  the  course  of  the  contest,  the  proceed- 
ings of  his  enemies,  and  was  further  informed  of  the  conduct 
of  the  Papal  see,  the  picture  of  corruption  and  utter  worth- 
lessnes^  nay  the  antichristian  character  of  the  Church 
system  at  Eome,  unfolded  itself  more  and  mor£  painfully 
and  fully  before  his  eyes.  The  richest  materials  for  this 
conclusion  he  found  in  the  pamphlets  of  the  writers  already 
referred  to,  and  in  the  descriptions  sent  from, Italy  by  men 
like  Hess  and  others,  who  shared  his  own  convictions. 

All  this  time,  moreover,  Luther's  feelings  as  a  German 
were  more  and  more  stirred  within  him,  while  thinking  of 
w4iat  German  Christianity  in  particular  was  compelled  to 
suffer  at  the  hands  of  Eome.  A  lively  consciousness  of  this 
had  been  awakened  in  his  mind  since  the  Diet  of  Augsburg 
in  1518,  with  its  protest  against  the  claims  of  the  Papacy, 
its  statement  of  the  grievances  of  the  German  nation,  and 
the  vigorous  writmgs  on  that  subject  which  were  circulated 
at  that  time.  He  referred  in  1519  to  that  Diet,  as  having 
drawn  a  distinction  between  the  Eomish  Church  and  the 
Eomish  Curia,  and  repudiated  the  latter  with  its  demands. 
As  •  for  the  Eomanists,  who  made  the  iwo  identical,  they 
looked  on  a  German  as  a  simple  fool,  a  lubberhead,  a  dolt,  a 
barbarian,  a  beast,  and  yet  they  laughed  at  him  for  letting 
himself  be  fleeced  and  pulled  by  the  nose.  Luther's  words 
were  now  re-echoed  in  louder  tones  by  Hütten,  whose  own 
wish,  moreover,  was  to  incite  his  fellow-countrymen,  as 
such,  to  rise  and  betake  themselves  to  battle. 

There  w^re  certain  of  the  laity  who  had  already  brought 
these  German  grievances  in  Churoli  matters  befoi:e  the  Diets, 
and  who  now  gave  vent  in  pamphlets  to  their  denunciations 
of  the  corruption  and  tyranny  of  the  Eomish  Church.  As  for 
Luther,  he  valued  the  judgment  of  ^a  Christian  layman,  who 
had  the  Bible  on  his  side,  as  highly,  and  higher,  than  that 
of  a  priest  and  prince  of  the  Church,  and  ascribed  the  true 
character  of  a  priest  to  all  Christians  alike  :  these  Estates 
of  the  Augsburg  Diet   he  speaks  of  as  '  lay  theologians.' 


ALLIANCE   WITH  HUMANISTS  AND  NOBILITY.  185 

Leading  laymen  of  the  nobility  now  came  forward  and 
offered  to  assist  him  in  his  labours  on  behalf  of  the  German 
Church.  Both  he  and  Melancthon  placed  their  confidence 
also  gladly  in  the  new  German  Emperor. 

Sevei-al  letters  of  Luther  at  this  time,  closely  fohowing 
on  each  other,  express  at  once  the  keenest  enthusiasm  for 
the  contest,  and  the  idea  of  a  Eeformation  proceeding  from 
the.  laity,  represented,  as  he  understood  them,  by  their 
established  authorities  and  Estates. 

We  und  in  these  letters  powerful  effusions  of  holy  zeal 
and  language  full  of  Christian  instruction,  mingled  with 
the  most  vehement  outbursts  of  the  natural  passion  which 
was  boiling  in  Luther's  breast.  Compared  with  them,  the 
cleverest  controversial  writings  of  the  Humanists,  and  even 
the  fiercest  satires  of  Hütten,  sound  only  like  rhetoric  and 
elaborate  displays  of  wit. 

Luther,  in  his  Sermon  on  Good  Works,  already  noticed 
as  so  replete  with  wholesome  doctrine  and  advice,  had 
already  complained  that  God's  ministry  was  perverted  into 
a  means  of  supporting  the  lowest  creatures  of  the  Pope, 
and  had  declared  that  the  best  and  only  thing  left  was 
for  kings,  princes,  nobles,  towns,  and  parishes  to  set  to 
work  themselves,  and  '  make  a  breach  in  the  abuse,'  so 
that  the  hitherto  intimidated  clergy  might  follow.  As  for 
excommunication  and  threats,  such  things  need  not  trouble 
them:  they  meant  as  little  as  if  a  mad  father  were  to 
threaten  his  son  who  was  guarding  him. 

The  sharpest  replies  on  the  part  of  Luther  were  next 
provoked  by  two  writings  which  justified  and  glorified  the 
Divine  authority  and  power  of  the  Papacy.  One  was  by 
a  Franciscan  friar,  Augustin  von  Alveld;  the  other  by 
Silvester  Prierias,  already  mentioned,  who  was  his  most 
active  opponent  in  this  matter. 

Luther  broke  out  against  '  the  Alveld  Ass  '  (as  he  called 
him  in  a  letter  to  Spalatin)  in  a  long  reply  entitled  *  The 
Popedom  at  Eome,'  with  the  object  of  exposing  once  and 


i86  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

finally  the  secrets  of  Antichrist.  'Erom  Kome'  he  says 
*  flow  all  evil  examples  of  spiritual  and  temporal  iniquity 
into  the  world,  as  from  a  sea  of  wickedness.  Whoever 
mourns  to  see  it,  is  called  by  the  Eomans  a  '  good  Christian,' 
or  in  their  language,  a  fool.  It  was  a  proverb  among  them 
that  one  ought  to  wheedle  the  gold  out  of  the  German 
simpletons  as  much  as  one  could.'  If  the  German  princes 
and  nobles  did  not  'make  short  work  of  them  in  good 
earnest,'  Germany  w^ould  either  be  devastated  or  would  have 
to  devour  herself. 

Prierias'  pamphlet  provoked  him  to  exclaim,  m  that 
same  letter  to  Spalatin,  '  I  think  that  at  Eome  they  are  all 
mad,  silly,  and  raging,  and  have  become  mere  fools,  sticks 
and  stones,  hells  and  devils.'  His  remarks  on  this 
pamphlet,  written  in  Latin,  contain  the  strongest  words 
that  we  have  yet  heard  from  his  lips  about  the  '  only  means 
left,'  and  the  '  short  work '  to  be  made  of  Eome.  Em- 
perors, kings,  and  princes,  he  says,  would  yet  have  to  take 
up  the  sword  against  the  rage  and  plague  of  the  Eomanists. 
*  When  we  hang  thieves,  and  behead  murderers,  and  burn 
heretics,  why  do  not  we  lay  hands  on  these  Cardinals  and 
Popes  and  all  the  rabble  of  the  Romish  Sodom,  and  bathe 
our  hands  in  their  blood  ? '  Wliat  Luther  now  m  reality 
wished  to  see  done,  was,  as  he  goes  on  to  say,  that  the 
Pope  should  be  corrected  as  Christ  commands  men  to  deal 
with  their  offending  brethren  (St.  Matth.  xviii.  15  sqq.),  and, 
if  he  neglected  to  hear,  should  be  held  as  an  heathen  man 
and  a  publican. 

"Wliile  these  pages  of  Luther's  were  in  the  press,  towards 
the  middle  of  June,  Hütten,  full  of  hope  himself,  and 
carrying  with  him  the  hopes  of  Luther  and  Melancthon, 
set  off  on  his  journey  to  the  Emperor's  brother  in  the 
Netherlands,  and,  on  his  way,  paid  a  visit  at  Cologne  to  the 
learned  Agrippa  von  Nettesheim,  accompanied,  as  the  latter 
says,  by  a  '  fevf  adherents  of  the  Lutheran  party.'  There, 
as  Agrippa  relates  with  terror,  they  expressed  aloud  their 


ALLIANCE  WITH  HUMANISTS   AND  NOBILII  Y.  187 

thoughts.  *  What  have  we  to  do  with  Rome  and  its  Bishop  ? ' 
they  asked.  *  Have  we  no  Archbishops  and  Bishops  in 
Germany,  that  we  must  kiss  the  feet  of  this  one?  Let 
Germany  turn,  and  turn  she  will,  to  her  own  bishops  and 
pastors.'  Hütten  paid  the  expenses  of  this  journey  out  of 
money  given  him  by  the  Archbishop  Albert ;  between  these 
two,  therefore,  the  bonds  of  friendship  were  not  yet  broken. 
Albert  was  the  first  of  the  German  bishops ;  Hütten,  and 
very  possibly  the  Archbishop  also,  might  reasonably  sup- 
pose that  a  reform  proceeding  from  the  Emperor  and  the 
Empire,  might  place  him  at  the  head  of  a  German  National 
Church. 

But  Luther  had  already  put  his  pen  to  a  composition 
which  was  to  summon  the  German  laity  to  the  grand  work 
before  them,  to  establish  the  foundations  of  Christian 
belief,  and  to  set  forth  in  full  the  most  crying  needs  and 
aims  of  the  time.  He  had  resolved  to  give  the  strongest 
and  amplest  expression  in  his  power  to  the  truth  for  which 
he  was  contending. 


[88  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME, 


CHAPTEE  VII. 

Luther's  works  to  the  christian  nobility  of  the 
german  nation,  and  on  the  babylonian  captivity. 

In  a  dedication  to  his  friend  and  colleague  Amsdorf, 
j)refixed  to  the  first  of  these  works,  he  begms,  '  The  time  of 
silence  is  past,  and  the  time  for  speaking  is  come.'  He  had 
several  points,  he  tells  us,  concerning  the  improvement  of 
the  Christian  condition,  to  lay  before  the  Christian  nobility 
of  Germany ;  perhaps  God  would  help  His  Church  through 
the  laity,  since  the  clergy  had  become  entirely  careless.  If 
charged  with  presumption  in  venturing  to  address  such 
high  people  on  such  great  matters,  so  be  it,  then  perhaps 
he  was  guilty  of  a  folly  towards  his  God  and  the  world, 
and  might  one  day  become  court-jester.  But  inasmuch  as 
he  was  a  sworn  doctor  of  Holy  Scripture,  he  rejoiced  in  the 
opportunity  of  satisfying  his  oath  in  this  manner. 

He  then  turns  to  the  *  Most  illustrious,  Most  powerful 
Imperial  Majesty,  and  to  the  Christian  nobility  of  the 
German  nation,'  with  the  greeting,  *  Grace  and  strength 
from  God  first  of  all,  most  illustrious,  gracious,  and  beloved 
Lords  ! ' 

The  need  and  troubles  of  Christendom,  and  especially 
of  Germany,  constrained  him,  as  he  said,  to  cry  to  God 
that  He  might  inspire  some  one  to  stretch  out  his  hand  to 
the  suffering  nation.  His  hopes  were  in  the  noble  young 
blood  now  given  by  God  as  her  head.  He  would  likewise 
do  his  part. 

The  Komanists,  in  order  to  prevent  their  being  reformed. 


CA'/6Y5   OF  SECESSION.  189 

had  shut  themselves  within  three  walls.  Firstly,  they  said, 
the  temporal  power  had  no  rights  over  them,  the  spiritual 
power,  but  the  spiritual  was  above  the  temporal ;  secondly, 
the  Scriptures,  which  were  sought  to  be  employed  against 
them,  could  only  be  expounded  by  the  Pope ;  thirdly,  no 
one  but  the  Pope  could  summon  a  Council.  Against  this, 
Luther  calls  to  God  for  one  of  those  trumpets  which  once 
blew  down  the  w^alls  of  Jericho,  in  order  to  blow  down  also 
these  walls  of  straw  and  paper. 

His  assault  upon  the  first  wall  was  decisive  for  the  rest. 
He  accomplished  it  with  his  doctrine  of  the  spiritual  and 
priestly  character  of  all  Christians,  who  had  been  baptised 
and  consecrated  by  the  blood  of  Christ  (1  Peter  ii.  9 ; 
Eev.  V.  10).  Thus,  according  to  Luther,  they  are  all  of 
one  character,  one  rank.  The  only  thing  peculiar  to  the 
so-called  ecclesiastics  or  priests,  is  the  special  office  or  work 
of  '  administering  the  Word  of  God  and  the  Sacraments ' 
to  the  congregation.  The  power  to  do  this  is  given,  indeed, 
by  God  to  all  Christians  as  priests,  but,  being  so  given, 
cannot  be  assumed  by  an  individual  without  the  will  and 
command  of  the  community.  The  ordination  of  priests,  as 
they  are  called,  by  a  bishop  can  in  reality  only  signify 
that,  out  of  the  collective  body  of  Christians,  all  possessing 
equal  power,  one  is  selected,  and  commanded  to  exercise 
this  pow^er  on  behalf  of  the  rest.  They  hold,  therefore,  this 
peculiar  office,  like  their  fellow-members  of  the  community 
who  are  entrusted  with  temporal  authority,  namely,  to  wield 
the  sword  for  the  punishment  of  the  bad  and  the  protection 
of  the  good.  They  hold  it,  as  every  shoemaker,  smith,  or 
builder  holds  office  in  his  particular  trade,  and  yet  all  alike 
are  priests.  Moreover,  this  temporal  magisterial  power  has 
the  right  to  exercise  its  office  free  and  unhindered  in  its 
own  sphere  of  action  ;  no  Pope  or  bishop  must  here  inter- 
fere, no  so-called  priest  must  usurp  it. 

As  a  consequence  of  this  spiritual  character  of  Chris- 
tians, the   second   w^all  was  also  doomed   to  fall.     Christ 


I90  THE  BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

said  of  all  Christians,  that  they  shall  all  be  taught  of 
God  (St.  John  vi.  45).  Thus  any  man,  however  humble, 
if  he  was  a  true  Christian,  could  have  a  right  under- 
standing of  the  Scriptures ;  and  the  Pope,  if  wicked  and 
not  a  true  Christian,  was  not  taught  of  God.  If  the  Pope 
alone  were  always  in  the  right,  one   would  have  to  pray 

*  I  believe  in  the  Pope  at  Kome,'  and  the  whole  Christian 
Church  would  then  be  centred  in  one  man,  which  would 
be  nothing  short  of  devilish  and  hellish  error.  After 
this  the  third  wall  fell  by  itself.  For,  says  Luther,  when 
the  Pope  acts  againsf  the  Scriptures,  it  is  our  duty  to  stand 
by  the  Scriptures  and  to  punish  him  as  Christ  taught  us  to 
punish  offending  brethren  (St.  Matthew  xviii.  17),  when  He 
said,  ^  Tell  it  unto  the  Church.'  Now  the  Church  or  Chris- 
tendom must  be  gathered  together  in  a  Council.  And  like 
as  the  most  famous  of  the  Councils,  that  of  Nice,  and  others 
after  it,  had  been  summoned  by  the  Emperor,  so  must  every- 
one, as  a  true  member  of  the  whole  body,  and  when 
necessary,  do  what  he  can  to  make  it  a  really  free  Council : 

*  which  nobody  can  do  so  well  as  the  temporal  authorities, 
who  meet  these  as  fellow-Christians,  fellow-priests.'  Just 
as  if  a  fire  broke  out  in  a  city,  no  one,  because  he  had 
not  the  power  of  the  burgomaster,  durst  stand  still  and 
let  it  burn,  but  every  citizen  must  run  and  call  others  to- 
gether, so  was  it  in  the  spiritual  city  of  Christ,  if  a  fire  of 
trouble  and  affliction  should  arise.  The  question  as  to  the 
composition  of  such  a  Council  Luther  does  not  proceed  to 
discuss.  That  he  wished,  however,  the  laity  to  be  repre- 
sented, we  may  safely  assume  from  the  whole  context,  though 
it  is  doubtful  how  far  he  may  then  have  thought  of  a  repre- 
sentation of  the  temporal  authorities  as  such,  and,  above 
all,  of  the  Christian  body  collectively,  through  its  political 
members.  But  the  main  point  on  which  he  insisted  was, 
that  the  Council  should  be  a  free  and  really  Christian  one, 
bound  by  no  oath  to  the  Pope,  fettered  by  no  so-called  Canon 
law,  but  subject  only  to  the  Word  of  God  in  Holy  Writ. 


CRISIS   OF  SECESSION. 


191 


Under  twenty-six  heads  Luther  then  proceeds  to  enume- 
rate the  points  on  which  such  a  Council  should  treat,  and 
w^hich  should  he  urged  in  particular  in  connection  with  the 
question  of  reform. 

The  whole  arrogance  of  the  Papacy,  the  temporal  pride 
with  which  the  Pope  clothed  himself,  the  idolatry  with  which 
he  was  treated,  were  to  Luther  a  scandal  and  unchristian. 
Lord  of  the  universe,  the  Pope  styled  himself,  and  paraded 
ahout  with  a  triple  crown  in  all  temporal  splendour,  and 
with  an  endless  train  of  followers  and  haggage,  w^hilst  claim- 
ing to  he  the  vicegerent  of  the  Lord  who  wandered  about 
in  poverty,  and  gave  Himself  up  to  the  Cross,  and  declared 
that  His  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world.  Clearly  and  fully 
Luther  shows  the  various  ways,  embracing  the  whole  life  of 
the  Church,  in  which  Eomish  tyranny  had  enslaved  the 
Churches  of  other  countries,  especially  of  Germany,  and 
had  turned  them  to  account  and  plundered  them  :  by  means 
of  fees  and  taxes  of  all  kinds,  by  drawing  away  the  trial  of 
ecclesiastical  cases  to  Eome,  by  accumulating  benefices  in 
the  hands  of  Papal  favourites  of  the  worst  description,  by 
the  unprincipled  and  usurious  sale  of  dispensationp,  by 
the  oath  which  made  the  bishops  mere  vassals  of  the  Pope, 
and  effectually  prevented  all  reform.  In  this  greed  for 
money  in  particular,  and  in  the  crafty  methods  of  collecting 
it,  Luther  saw  the  genuine  Antichrist,  who,  as  Daniel  had 
foretold,  was  to  gather  the  treasures  of  the  earth  (Daniel 
xi.  8,  39,  43). 

To  confront  this  oppression  and  these  acts  of  usurpa- 
tion, Luther  would  not  have  men  wait  for  a  Council.  As 
for  these  impositions  and  taxes,  he  says  that  every  prince, 
noble,  and  town  should  straightway  repudiate  and  forbid 
them.  This  lawless  pillaging  of  ecclesiastical  benefices  and 
fiefs  by  Eome  should  be  resisted  at  once  by  the  nobility. 
Anyone  coming  from  the  Papal  court  to  Germany  with  such 
claims,  must  be  ordered  to  desist,  or  to  jump  into  the  nearest 
piece  of  water  with  his  seals  and  letters  and  the  ban  of  ex- 


192  THE   BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

communication.     Luther  insists  especially  on  demanding, 
as   Hütten    had   already   demanded,   that   the   individual 
Churches,  and  particularly  those  of  Germany,  should  order 
and   conduct   their   own   affairs   independently   of  Eome. 
The   bishops   were   not    to   obtain   their   confirmation   at 
Eome,  but,  as  already  decreed  by  the  Nicene  Council,  from 
a  couple  of  neighbouring  bishops  or  an  archbishop.     The 
German  bishops  were  to  be  under  their  own  primate,  who 
might  hold  a  general  consistory  with  chancellors  and  coun- 
sellors, to  receive  appeals  from  the  whole  of  Germany.    The 
Pope,  in  other  respects,  w^as  still  to  be  left  a  position  of 
supremacy  in  the  collective  Christian  Church,  and  the  ad- 
judication of  matters  of  importance  on  which  the  primates 
could  not  agree.     One  other  matter  Luther  dwells  on,  as 
affecting  the  entire  constitution  of  the  Church.     It  is  not 
the  mere  administrative  and  judicial  functions  that  consti- 
tute the  true  meaning  of  office,  whether  in  a  priest,  a  bishop, 
or  a  Pope,  but  a  constant  service  to  God's  Word.     Luther 
therefore  is  anxious  that  the  Pope  should  not  be  burdened 
with  small  matters.  He  cahs  to  mind  how  once  the  Apostles 
w^ould  not  leave  the  Word  of  God,  and  serve  tables,  but 
wished  to  give  themselves  to  prayer  and  to  the  ministry  of 
the  Word  (Acts  vi.  2,  4).     But  he  would  have  a  clean  sweep 
made  of  the  so-called  ecclesiastical  law,  contained  in  the 
law-books  of  the  Church.     The  Scriptures  were  sufficient. 
Besides,  the  Pope  himself  did  not  keep  that  law,  but  pre- 
tended to  carry  aU  law  in  the  shrine  of  his  own  heart. 

Consistently  with  all  that  he  has  said  about  the  relative 
positions  of  the  temporal  and  spiritual  powers,  Luther  goes 
on  to  protest,  on  behalf  especially  of  the  German  Empire, 
against  the  'overbearing  and  criminal  behaviour'  of  the 
Pope,  who  arrogates  to  himself  power  over  the  Enaperor, 
and  allows  the  latter  to  kiss  his  foot  and  hold  his  stirrup. 
Granted  that  he  is  superior  to  the  Emperor  in  spiritual 
office,  in  preaching,  in  administering  the  Word  of  grace ;  in 
other  matters  he  is  his  inferior. 


CR /s/s   OF  SECESS/OA  193 

But  the  most  important  demand  advanced  by  Luther, 
while  pushing  further  his  inquiries  into  the  moral  and  social 
regulations  and  condition  of  the  Church,  is  the  abolition  of 
the  celibacy  of  the  clergy.  If  Popes  and  bishops  wish  to 
impose  upon  themselves  the  burden  of  an  unmarried  life, 
he  has  nothing  to  say  to  that.  He  speaks  only  of  the  clergy 
in  general,  whom  God  has  appointed,  who  are  needed  by 
every  Christian  community  for  the  service  of  preaching  and 
the  sacraments,  and  who  must  live  and  keep  house  amongst 
their  fellow-Christians.  Not  an  angel  from  Heaven,  much 
less  a  Pope,  dare  bind  this  man  to  what  God  has  never 
bound  him,  and  thereby  precipitate  him  into  danger  and 
sin.  A  limit  at  least  must  be  imposed  on  monastic  Hfe. 
Luther  would  like  to  see  the  convents  and  cloisters  turned 
into  Christian  schools,  where  men  might  learn  the  Scriptures 
and  discipline,  and  be  trained  to  govern  others  and  to  preach. 
He  would  further  give  full  liberty  to  quit  such  institutions 
at  pleasure.  He  reverts  to  the  question  of  clerical  celibacy, 
in  lamenting  the  gross  immoralities  of  the  priesthood,  and 
complaining  that  marriage  was  so  frequently  avoided  on 
account  simply  of  the  responsibilities  it  entailed,  and  the 
restraints  it  imposed  on  loose  living. 

Luther  would  abolish  all  commands  to  fast,  on  the 
ground  that  these  ordinances  of  man  are  opposed  to  the 
freedom  of  the  Bible.  He  would  do  away  also  with  the 
multitude  of  festivals  and  holidays,  as  leading  only  to  idle- 
ness, carousing,  and  gambling.  He  would  check  the  foolish 
pilgrimages  to  Kome,  on  which  so  much  money  was  wasted, 
whilst  wife  and  child,  and  poor  Christian  neighbours  were 
left  at  home  to  starve,  and  which  drew  people  into  so  much 
trouble  and  temptation.  As  regards  the  management  of 
the  poor,  Luther's  requirements  were  somewhat  stringent. 
All  begging  among  Christians  was  to  be  forbidden ;  each 
town  was  to  provide  for  its  own  poor,  and  not  admit  strange 
beggars.  As  the  universities  at  that  time,  no  less  than  the 
schools,  were  in  connection  with  the  Church,  Luther  offers 


194  THE  BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

some  suggestions  for  their  reform.  He  singles  out  the 
writings  of  the  ancients  which  were  read  in  the  philosophical 
faculty,  and  others,  which  might  be  done  away  with  as  use- 
less or  even  pernicious.  With  regard  to  the  mass  of  civil 
law,  he  agreed  with  the  complaint  often  heard  among 
Germans,  that  it  had  become  a  wilderness:  each  state 
should  be  governed,  as  far  as  possible,  '  by  its  own  brief  laws.' 
For  children,  girls  as  well  as  boys,  he  would  like  to  see  a 
school  in  every  town.  It  grieved  him  to  see  how,  in  the 
very  heart  of  Christendom,  the  young  folk  were  neglected 
and  allowed  to  perish  for  lack  of  timely  sustenance  with  the 
bread  of  the  gospel. 

He  reverts  again  to  the  question  about  the  Bohemians, 
with  a  view  to  silencing  at  length  the  vile  calumniations  of 
his  enemies.  And  in  so  doing  he  remarks  of  Huss,  that 
even  if  he  had  been  a  heretic,  '  heretics  must  be  conquered 
with  the  pen  and  not  with  fire.  If  to  conquer  them  with 
fire  were  an  art,  the  executioners  would  be  the  most  learned 
doctors  on  the  earth.' 

Lastly  he  refers  briefly  to  the  prevalent  evils  of  worldly 
and  social  life ;  to  wit,  the  luxury  in  dress  and  food,  the 
habits  of  excess  common  among  Germans,  the  practice  of 
usury  and  taking  interest.  He  would  like  to  put  a  bridle 
into  the  mouth  of  the  great  commercial  firms,  especially 
the  rich  house  of  Fugger ;  for  the  amassing  of  such 
enormous  wealth,  during  the  life  of  one  man,  could  never 
be  done  by  right  and  godly  means.  It  seemed  to  him  '  far 
more  godly  to  promote  agriculture  and  lessen  commerce.' 
Luther  speaks  in  this  as  a  man  of  the  people,  who  were 
already  suspicious  about  this  accumulation  of  money,  from 
a  right  feeling  really  of  the  moral  and  economical  dangers 
thence  accruing  to  the  nation,  even  if  ignorant  of  the 
necessary  relations  of  supply  and  demand.  As  to  this, 
Luther  adds  :  '  I  leave  that  to  the  worldly-wise  ;  I,  as  a 
theologian,  can  only  say.  Abstain  from  all  appearance  of 
evil.'     (1   Thessalonians  v.  22.) 


CRISIS  OF  SECESSION.  195 

So  wide  a  field  of  subjects  did  this  little  book  embrace. 
We  have  only  here  mentioned  the  chief  points.  Luther 
himself  acknowledges  at  the  conclusion  :  '  I  am  well  aware 
that  I  have  pitched  my  note  high,  that  I  have  proposed 
many  things  which  will  be  looked  upon  as  impossible,  and 
have  attacked  many  points  too  sharply.  I  am  bound  to  add, 
that  if  I  could,  I  would  not  only  talk  but  act ;  I  would 
rather  the  world  were  angry  with  me  than  God.'  But 
Rome  always  remained  the  chief  object  of  his  attacks. 
'Well  then,'  he  says  of  her,  'I  know  of  another  little  song 
of  Eome  ;  if  her  ear  itches  for  it,  I  will  sing  it  to  her  and 
pitch  the  notes  at  their  highest.'  He  concludes,  *  God  give 
us  all  a  Christian  understanding,  and  to  the  Christian 
nobility  of  the  German  nation,  especially,  a  true  spiritual 
courage  to  do  their  best  for  the  poor  Church.     Amen.' 

Whilst  Luther  was  working  on  this  treatise,  new  dis- 
quieting rumours  and  remonstrances  addressed  from  Eome 
to  the  Elector  reached  him  through  Spalatin.  But  with 
them  came  also  that  promise  of  protection  from  Schauen - 
burg.  Luther  answered  Spalatin,  '  The  die  is  cast,  I 
despise  alike  the  wrath  and  the  favour  of  Eome ;  I  will 
have  no  reconciliation  with  her,  no  fellowship.'  Friends 
who  heard  of  his  new  work  grew  alarmed  ;  Staupitz,  even  at 
the  eleventh  hour,  tried  to  dissuade  him  from  it.  But  be- 
fore August  was  far  advanced,  four  thousand  copies  were 
already  printed  and  published.  A  new  edition  was  imme- 
diately called  for.  Luther  now  added  another  section 
repudiating  the  arrogant  pretension  of  the  Pope,  that 
through  his  means  the  Eoman  Empire  had  been  brought 
to  Germany, 

Well  might  Luther's  friend  Lange  call  this  treatise  a 
war-trumpet.  The  Eeformer,  who  at  first  merely  wished 
to  point  out  and  open  to  men  the  right  way  of  salvation, 
and  to  fight  for  it  with  the  sword  of  his  word,  now  stepped 
forward  boldly  and  with  determination,  demanding  the 
abolition   of   all  unlawful   and  unchristian   ordinances   of 

o2 


196  THE  BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

the  Eomish  Church,  and  calhng  upon  the  temporal  powei 
to  assist  him,  if  need  be,  with  material  force.  The  ground- 
work of  this  resolve  had  been  laid,  as  we  have  seen,  in 
the  progress  of  his  moral  and  religious  convictions;  in 
the  inalienable  rights  which  belong  to  Christianity  in 
general,  and  the  mission  with  which  God  entrusts  also  the 
temporal  power  or  state  ;  in  the  independence  granted  by 
Him  to  this  power  on  its  own  domain,  and  the  duties  He 
has  imposed  upon  all  Christian  authorities,  even  in  regard 
to  all  moral  and  religious  needs  and  dangers.  But  he  denied 
altogether,  and  we  may  well  believe  him,  that  he  had  any 
wish  to  create  disorder  or  disturbance  ;  his  intention  was 
merely  to  prepare  the  way  for  a  free  Council.  Not  indeed 
that  he  shrank  from  the  thought  of  battle  and  tumult, 
should  the  powers  whom  he  invoked  meet  with  resistance 
from  the  adherents  of  Eome  or  Antichrist.  As  for  himself, 
though  forced  to  make  such  a  stormy  appearance,  he  had 
no  idea  of  himself  being  destined  to  become  the  Keformer, 
but  was  content  rather  to  prepare  the  way  for  a  greater 
man,  and  his  thoughts  herein  turned  to  Melancthon. 
Thus  he  wrote  to  Lange  these  remarkable  words  :  '  It  may 
be  that  I  am  the  forerunner  of  Philip,  and  like  Elias, 
prepare  the  way  for  him  in  spirit  and  in  strength,  destroy- 
ing the  people  of  Ahab'  (1  Kings  xviii).  Melancthon,  on 
the  other  hand,  wrote  to  Lange  just  then  about  Luther, 
saying  that  he  did  not  venture  to.  check  the  spirit  of  Martin 
in  this  matter,  to  which  Providence  seemed  to  have  appointed 

him. 

From  the  Electoral  court  Luther  learned  that  his 
treatise  was  '  not  altogether  displeasing.'  And  just  at  this 
time  he  had  to  thank  his  prince  for  a  present  of  game. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Luther  received  also  from  that 
quarter  the  advice  to  approach  the  Emperor,  who  had  just 
arrived  in  Germany,  and  whom  he  had  wished  to  address 
in  his  treatise,  with  a  direct  personal  request  for  protection, 
to  prevent  his  being  condemned  unheard.     He  addressed 


CÄ!/S/S   OF  SECESSION, 


197 


to  him  a  ^Yell-considered  letter,  couched  in  dignified  lan- 
guage.    He  issued  at  the  same  time  a  short  piil)lic  '  offer,' 


ftanuiBtifirmmg. 

2Durrt>y£,nfeib6ne*j 
»ntbrrtmoccnißfrt. 


mil. 


Fig.  22.— Title-page  of  the  second  edition  of  this  Teeatise, 
in  a  rather  smaller  size. 

appealing  therein  to  the  fact,  that  he  had  so  long  begged  in 
vam  for  a  proper  refutation.     These  two  writings  were  first 


198  THE   BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

examined  and  corrected  by  Spalatin,  and  so  appeared  only  at 
the  end  of  August,  not,  as  is  generally  supposed,  in  the 
January  of  this  year.  Luther  never  received  an  answer  to 
his  letter  to  the  Emperor,  and  therefore  never  heard  how  it 
was  received. 

The  dangers  which  threatened  Luther,  and  through 
him  also  the  honour  and  prosperity  of  his  Order,  affected 
further  his  companions  and  friends  who  belonged  to  it. 
And  of  this  Miltitz  took  advantage  to  renew  his  attempts  at 
mediation.  He  induced  the  brethren,  at  a  convention  of 
Augustinian  friars  held  at  Eisleben,  to  persuade  Luther  once 
more  to  write  to  the  Pope,  and  solemnly  assure  him  that 
he  had  never  wished  to  attack  him  personally.  A  deputa- 
tion of  these  monks,  with  Staupitz  and  Link  at  their  head, 
came  to  Luther  at  Wittenberg  on  the  4th  or  5th  of  Sep- 
tember, and  received  his  promise  to  comply  with  their 
wishes.  At  this  convention,  Staupitz,  who  felt  his  strength 
no  longer  equal  to  the  difficult  questions  and  controversies 
of  the  time,  had  resigned  his  office  as  Yicar  of  the  Order, 
and  Link  had  succeeded  him.  Luther  saw  him  now  at 
Wittenberg  for  the  last  time.  He  retired  in  quiet  seclusion 
to  Salzburg,  where  the  Archbishop  was  his  personal  friend. 

But  Luther's  spirit  would  not  let  him  desist  for  a  moment 
from  prosecuting  his  contest,  with  Eome.  He  had  yet  '  a 
little  song  '  to  sing  about  her.  He  was  in  fact  at  work  in 
August,  while  rumours  were  already  afloat  that  Eck  was  on 
his  way  with  the  bull,  upon  a  new  tract,  and  had  even  begun 
to  have  it  printed.  It  was  to  treat  of  the  *  Babylonian 
Captivity  of  the  Church,'  takingas  its  subject  the  Christian 
sacraments.  Luther  knew  that  in  this  he  cut  deeper  into 
the  theological  and  religious  principles  of  the  Church,  which 
had  come  under  discussion  m  his  quarrel  with  Eome,  than 
in  all  his  demands  for  reform,  put  forward  in  his  address 
to  the  nobility.  For  while,  in  common  with  the  Church 
herself,  he  saw  in  the  Sacraments,  instituted  by  Christ, 
the  most  sacred  acts  of  worship,  and  the  channels  through 


CRISIS  OF  SECESSION.  199 

which  salvation  itself,  forgiveness,  grace,  and  strength  are 
imparted  from  above,  in  those  principles  he  saw  them  Hmited 
by  man's  caprice  in  their  original  scope  and  meaning, 
robbed  of  their  true  significance,  and  made  the  instruments  of 
Papal  and  priestly  domination,  while  other  pretended  sacra- 
ments were  joined  to  them,  never  instituted  by  Christ.  On 
this  account  he  complained  of  the  tyranny  to  which  these 
sacraments,  and  with  them  the  Church,  were  subject,  of  the 
captivity  in  which  they  lay.  Against  him  were  arrayed  not 
only  the  hierarchy,  but  the  whole  forces  of  Scholastic  learn- 
ing. He  knew  that  what  ,he  now  propounded  would  sound 
preposterous  to  these  opponents ;  he  would  make,  he  said, 
his  feeble  revilers  feel  their  blood  run  cold.  But  he  met 
them  in  the  armour  of  profound  erudition,  and  with  learned 
arguments  lucidly  and  concisely  expressed  in  Latin.  At 
the  same  time  his  language,  where  he  explains  the  real 
essence  of  the  sacraments,  shows  a  clearness  and  religious 
fervour  which  no  layman  could  fail  to  understand. 

The  subject  of  the  deepest  importance  to  Luther  in  this 
treatise  was  the  sacrament  of  the  altar.  He  dwells  on  the 
mutilated  form,  without  the  cup,  in  which  the  Lord's  Supper 
was  given  to  the  laity ;  on  the  doctrine  invented  about  the 
change  of  the  bread,  instead  of  keeping  to  the  simple  word  of 
Scripture ;  and,  lastly,  on  the  substitution  of  a  sacrifice,  sup- 
posed to  be  offered  to  God  by  the  priest,  for  the  institution 
ordained*  by  Christ  for  the  nourishment  of  the  faithful. 
The  withholding  of  the  cup  he  calls  an  act  of  ungodliness 
and  tyranny,  beyond  the  power  of  either  Pope  or  Council  to 
prescribe.  Against  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass  he  had  pub- 
lished just  before  a  sermon  in  German.  He  was  well  aware 
that  his  principles  involved,  as  indeed  he  intended,  a 
revolution  of  the  whole  service,  and  an  attack  on  an 
ordinance,  upon  which  a  number  of  other  abuses,  of 
great  importance  to  the  hierarchy,  depended.  But  he 
ventured  it,  because  God's  word  obliged  him  to  do  it.  So 
now  he  proceeds  to-describe,  in  contrast  to  this  mass,  the 


200  THE  BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

one  of  true  Christian  institution,  and  resting  wholly,  as  he 
conceived  it,  on  the  words  of  Christ,  when  instituting  the 
Last  Supper,  '  Take,  and  eat,'  etc.  Christ  would  here  say, 
*  See,  thou  poor  sinner,  out  of  pure  love  I  promise  to  thee, 
before  thou  canst  either  earn  or  promise  anything,  forgiveness 
of  all  thy  sins,  and  eternal  life,  and  to  assure  thee  of  this 
I  give  here  my  Body  and  shed  my  Blood  ;  do  thou,  by  my 
death,  rest  assured  of  this  promise,  and  take  as  a  sign  my 
Body  and  my  Blood.' 

For  the  worthy  celebration  of  this  mass,  nothing  is  re- 
quired but  faith,  which  shall  trust  securely  in  this  promise ; 
•with  this  faith  will  come  the  sweetest  stirrings  of  the  heart, 
which  will  unfold  itself  in  love,  and  yearn  for  the  good 
Saviour,  and  in  Him  will  become  a  new  creature. 

As  regards  baptism  Luther  lamented  that  it  was  no  longer 
allowed  to  possess  the  true  significance  and  value  it  ought  to 
have  for  a  man's  whole  life.  Whereas  in  truth  the  person 
baptized  received  a  promise  of  mercy  from  God,  to  which 
time  after  time,  even  from  the  sins  of  his  future  life,  he  might 
and  was  bound  to  turn,  it  was  taught,  that  in  sinning  after 
baptism,  the  Christian  was  like  a  shipwrecked  man,  who, 
instead  of  the  ship,  could  only  reach  a  plank ;  this  being  the 
sacrament  of  penance,  with  its  accompanying  outward  for- 
malities. Whereas  further,  in  true  baptism  he  had  vowed 
to  dedicate  his  whole  life  and  conduct  to  God,  other  vows  of 
human  invention  were  now  demanded  of  him.  Whereas  he 
then  became  a  full  partaker  of  Christian  liberty,  he  was  now 
burdened  with  ordmances  of  the  Church,  devised  by  man. 

Concerning  this  sacrament  of  penance,  with  confession, 
absolution,  and  its  other  adjuncts,  Luther  rates  at  its  full 
value  the  word  of  forgiveness  spoken  to  the  individual,  and 
values  also  the  free  confession  made  to  his  Christian  brother 
by  the  Christian  seeking  comfort.  But  confession,  he  said, 
had  been  perverted  into  an  institution  of  compulsion  and 
torture.  Instead  of  leading  the  tempted  brother  to  trust 
in  God's  mercy,  he  was  ordered  to  perform  acts  of  penance, 


C/^/SJS   OF  SE CESSIO. V.  201 

whereby  nominally  to  give  satisfaction  to  God,  but  in  reality 
to  minister  to  the  ambition  and  insatiable  avarice  of  the 
Eoman  see. 

From  all  these  abuses  and  perversions  Luther  seeks 
to  liberate  the  sacraments,  and  restore  them  in  their 
purity  to  Christians.  Nevertheless,  he  takes  care  to  insist 
on  the  fact  that  it  is  not  the  mere  external  ceremony, 
the  act  of  the  priest  in  administering,  and  the  visible  par- 
taking of  the  receiver,  that  make  the  latter  a  sharer  in  the 
promised  grace  and  blessedness.  This,  he  says,  depends 
upon  a  hearty  faith  in  the  Divine  promise.  He  who  believes 
enjoys  the  benefit  of  the  sacrament,  even  though  its  outward 
administration  be  denied  him. 

The  mediaeval  Church  ordained  four  other  sacraments, 
namely, .  confirmation,  marriage,  consecration  of  priests, 
and  extreme  unction.  But  Luther  refuses  to  acknow- 
ledge any  of  these  as  a  sacrament.  Marriage,  he  says,  in 
its  sacramental  aspect,  was  not  an  institution  of  the  New 
Testament,  nor  was  it  connected  with  any  especial  pro- 
mise of  grace.  It  was  but  a  holy  moral  ordinance  of  daily 
life,  existing  since  the  beginning  of  the  world  and  among 
those  who  were  not  Christians  as  well  as  those  who  were.  At 
the  same  time  he  takes  the  opportunity  to  protest  against 
those  human  regulations  with  which  even  this  ordinance  had 
been  invaded  by  the  Komish  Church,  especially  against  the 
arbitrary  obstacles  to  marriage  she  had  created.  Even  these 
were  made  a  source. of  revenue  to  her,  by  the  granting  of 
dispensations.  For  the  other  three  sacraments  there  was  no 
especial  promise.  In  the  Epistle  of  St.  James  (v.  14),  where 
it  speaks  of  anointing  the  sick  with  oil,  the  allusion  is  not  to 
extreme  unction  to  the  dying,  but  to  the  exercise  of  that  won- 
derful Apostolic  gift  of  healing  the  sick  through  the  power  of 
faith  and  prayer.  With  regard  to  the  consecration  of  priests, 
Luther  repeats  the  principles  laid  down  in  his  address  to 
the  nobility.  Ordination  consists  simply  of  this,  that  out 
of  a  community,  ail  of  whom  are  priests,  one  is  chosen  for 


202  THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

the  particular  work  of  administering  God's  word.  If,  as 
in  consecration,  the  hand  is  laid  upon  him,  this  is  a 
human  custom  and  not  instituted  by  the  Lord  Himself. 
But  in  truth,  says  Luther,  the  outrageous  tyranny  of  the 
clergy,  with  their  priestly  bodily  anointing,  their  tonsure, 
and  their  dress,  would  arrogate  a  higher  position  than  other 
Christians  anointed  with  the  Spirit;  these  are  counted 
almost  as  unworthy  as  dogs  to  belong  to  the  Church. 
And  most  seriously  he  warns  a  man  not  to  strive  for  that 
outward  anointing,  unless  he  is  earnestly  intent  on  the  true 
service  of  the  gospel,  and  has  disclaimed  all  pretension  to 
become,  by  consecration,  better  than  lay  Christians. 

In  conclusion  Luther  declares  :  he  hears  that  Papal  ex- 
communication is  prepared  for  him,  to  force  him  to  recant. 
In  that  case  this  little  treatise  shall  form  part  of  his  re- 
cantation. After  that  he  will  soon  j)ublish  the  rest,  the  like 
of  which  has  never  been  seen  or  heard  by  the  Eomish  see. 

In  the  beginning  of  October,  probably  on  the  6th  of 
that  month,  the  book  was  issued.  Luther  had  heard  some 
ten  days  before  that  Eck  had  actually  arrived  with  the 
bull.  He  had  already  caused  it  to  be  posted  publicly  at 
Meissen  on  September  21.  Early  in  October  he  sent  a 
copy  of  it  also  to  the  university  of  Wittenberg. 


203 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 

THE    BULL    OF    EXCOMMUNICATION,    AND    LUTHER's    REPLY. 

At  Eome,  the  bull,  now  newly  arrived  in  Germany,  had  been 
published  as. early  as  June  16.  It  had  been  considered, 
when  at  length,  under  the  pressure  of  the  influences  de- 
scribed above,  the  subject  was  taken  up  in  earnest,  very 
carefully  in  the  Papal  consistory.  The  jurists  there  were 
of  opmion  that  Luther  should  be  cited  once  more,  but 
their  views  did  not  prevail.  As  for  the  negotiations,  con- 
ducted through  Miltitz,  for  an  examination  of  Luther  before 
the  Archbishop  of  Treves,  no  heed  was  now  paid  to  the 
affair. 

The  bull  begms  with  the  words,  '  Arise,  0  Lord,  and 
avenge  Thy  cause.'  It  proceeds  to  invoke  St.  Peter,  St. 
Paul,  the  whole  body  of  the  samts,  and  the  Church.  A 
wild  boar  had  broken  hito  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord,  a  wild 
beast  was  there  seeking  to  devour  &c.  Of  the  heresy  against 
which  it  was  dh-ected,  the  Pope,  as  he  states,  had  additional 
reason  to  complain,  since  the  Germans,  among  whom  it 
had  broken  out,  had  always  been  regarded  by  him  with 
such  tender  affection  :  he  gives  them  to  understand  that 
they  owed  the  Empire  to  the  Eomish  Church.  Forty-one 
propositions  from  Luther's  writings  are  then  rejected  and 
condemned,  as  heretical  or  at  least  scandalous  and  corrupt- 
ing, and  his  works  collectively  are  sentenced  to  be  burnt. 
As  to  Luther  himself,  the  Pope  calls  God  to  witness  that  he 
has  neglected  no  means  of  fatherly  love  to  bring  him  into 
the  right  way.  Even  now  he  is  ready  to  follow  towards 
him  the  example  of  Divine  mercy  which  wills  not  the  death 


204  THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

of  a  sinner,  but  that  he  should  be  converted  and  live ;  and 
so  once  more  he  calls  upon  him  to  repent,  in  which  case  he 
will  receive  him  graciously  like  the  prodigal  son.  Sixty 
days  are  given  him  to  recant.  But  if  he  and  his  adherents 
will  not  repent,  they  are  to  be  regarded  as  obstinate  heretics 
and  withered  branches  of  the  vine  of  Christ,  and  must  be 
punished  according  to  law.  No  doubt  the  punishment  of 
burning  was  meant ;  the  bull  in  fact  expressly  condemns 
the  proposition  of  Luther  which  denounces  the  burning  of 
heretics. 

All  this  was  called  then  at  Eome,  and  has  been  called 
even  latterly  by  the  Papal  party,  '  the  tone  rather  of  fatherly 
sorrow  than  of  penal  severity.'  The  means  by  which  the 
bull  had  been  brought  about,  made  it  fitting  that  Eck  him- 
self should  be  commissioned  with  its  circulation  throughout 
Germany,  and  especially  with  its  publication  in  Saxony. 
More  than  this,  he  received  the  unheard  of  permission  to 
denounce  any  of  the  adherents  of  Luther  at  his  j)leasure, 
when  he  published  the  bull. 

Accordingly,  Eck  had  the  bull  publicly  posted  up  in 
September  at  Meissen,  Merseburg,  and  Brandenburg.  He 
was  charged,  moreover,  by  a  Papal  brief,  in  the  event  of 
Luther's  refusing  to  submit,  to  call  upon  the  temporal 
power  to  punish  the  heretic.  But  at  Leipzig,  where  the 
magistrate,  by  order  of  Duke  George,  had  to  present  him 
with  a  goblet  full  of  money,  he  was  so  hustled  in  the  streets 
by  his  indignant  opponents,  that  he  was  forced  to  take  refuge 
in  the  Convent  of  St.  Paul,  and  hastened  to  pursue  his 
journey  by  night,  whilst  the  city  officials  rode  about  the 
neighbourhood  with  the  bull.  A  number  of  Wittenberg  stu- 
dents, adds  Miltitz,  made  their  appearance  also  at  Leipzig, 
who  '  behaved  in  a  good-for-nothing  way  towards  him.' 

At  Wittenberg,  where  the  publication  of  the  bull  rested 
with  the  university,  the  latter  notified  its  arrival  to  the 
Elector,  and  objected  for  various  reasons  to  publish  it, 
alleging,  in  particular,  that  Eck,  its  sender,  was  not  fur- 


THE  BULL    OF  EXCOMMUNICATION. 


205 


nished  with  proper  authority  from  the  Pope.  Luther  now 
for  the  first  time  felt  himself,  as  he  wrote  to  Spalatin,  really 
free,  bemg  at  length  convinced  that  the  Popedom  was 
Antichrist  and  the  seat  of  Satan.  He  was  not  at  all  dis- 
couraged by  a  letter  sent  at  this  time  by  Erasmus  from 
Holland  to  Wittenberg,  saying  that  no  hopes  could  be  placed 
in  the  Emperor  Charles,  as  he  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Mendicant  Friars.  As  for  the  bull,  so  extraordinary  were 
its  contents,  that  he  wished  to  consider  it  a  forgery. 

Still  the  promise  which  Luther  had  given  to  his  Augus- 
tinian  brethren,  only  a  few  weeks  before,  under  pressure 
from  Miltitz,  remained  as  yet  unfulfilled.  Nor  did  IMiltitz 
himself  wish  the  threads  of  the  web  then  sj)un  to  slij)  from 
his  fingers.  Even  at  this  hour,  with  the  consent  and  at 
the  wish  of  the  Elector,  an  interview  had  been  arranged 
between  Miltitz  and  Luther  at  the  Castle  of  Lichtenberg 
(now  Lichtenburg,  in  the  district  of  Torgau),  where  the 
monks  of  St.  Antony  were  then  housed.  Just  as  Miltitz,  as 
we  have  seen,  had  thought  to  be  able  to  avert  the  bull  by 
getting  Luther  to  write  a  letter  to  the  Pope,  so  now  he  pro- 
mised the  Elector  still  to  conciliate  the  Pope  by  that  means. 
Only  the  letter  was  to  be  dated  back  to  the  time,  before  the 
publication  of  the  bull,  when  Luther  first  gave  his  consent 
to  write  it.  Its  substance  was  to  be  as  then  agreed  upon  ; 
Luther,  as  Miltitz  expressed  it,  was  to  '  eulogise  the  Pope  per- 
sonally in  a  manner  agreeable  to  him,'  and  at  the  same  time 
submit  to  him  an  historical  statement  of  what  he  had  done. 
Luther  consented  to  publish  a  letter  in  these  terms,  in  Latin 
and  German,  under  date  of  September  6,  and  immediately 
gave  effect  to  his  promise. 

It  is  hardly  conceivable  how  Miltitz  could  still  have  nur- 
tured such  a  hope.  Neither  his  wish  to  ingratiate  himself 
with  the  Elector  Frederick,  and  to  checkmate  the  plans  of 
Eck  whom  he  detested,  nor  his  personal  vanity  and  flippancy 
of  character,  are  sufficient  to  account  for  it.  He  must 
have  learnt  from  his  own  previous  personal  intercourse  with 


2o6  THE   BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

the  Pope,  and  his  experiences  of  the  Papal  court,  that  Leo 
did  not  take  up  Church  questions  and  controversies  so 
gravely  and  so  seriously  as  not  to  remain  fully  open  all  the 
time  to  influences  and  considerations  of  other  kinds,  and 
that  around  him  were  parties  and  influential  personages, 
arrayed  in  mutual  hostility  and  rivalry.  He  must  have  been 
strangely  ignorant  of  the  state  of  things  at  Eome.  But  as 
to  Luther  and  his  cause  there  was  no  longer  any  hesitation 
in  that  quarter. 

In  what  sense  Luther  himself  was  willing  to  comply  with 
i/he  demand  of  Miltitz,  the  contents  of  his  letter  suffice  to 
/show.     He  makes  it  clear  that  nothing  was  further  from  his 
/intention  than  to  appease  the  angry  Pontiff  by  any  dexterous 
artifices   or   concealments.     The   assurance  required  from 
.him,  that  he  had  no  wish  to  attack  the  Pope  personally,  he 
I  construes  in  its  literal  terms,  apart  altogether  from  the  official 
[character  and  acts  of  Leo.    And  in  fact  against  his  personal 
character  and  conduct  he  had  never  said  a  word.     But  he 
takes  this  opportunity,  at  the  same  time,  of  speaking  to 
him  plamly,  as  a  Christian  is  bound  to  do  to  his  fellow- 
Christian;  of  repeating  to  him,  face  to  face,  the  severest 
charges  yet  made  by  him  against  the  Eomish  chair ;  of  ex- 
cusing Leo's  own  conduct  in  this  chak  simply  and  solely  on 
the  ground  that  he  regarded  him  as  a  victim  of  the  monstrous 
corruption  which  surrounded  him,  and  of  warning  him  once 
more  against  it  as  a  brother.     He  tells  him  to  his  face  that 
he  himself,  the  Holy  Father,  must  acknowledge  that  the 
Papal  see  was  more  wicked  and  shameful  than  any  Sodom, 
Gomorrah,  or  Babylon ;  that  God's  wrath  had  fallen  upon 
it  without  ceasing ;  that  Eome,  which  had  once  been  the 
,  gate  of  heaven,  was  now  an  open  jaw  of  hell.     Most  earnestly 
I  he  warns  Leo  against  his  flatterers, — the  '  ear-ticklers  '  who 
would  make  him  a  God.    He  assures  him  that  he  wishes  him 
all  that  is  good,  and  therefore  he  wishes  that  he  should  not 
be  devoured  by  these  jaws  of  heh,  but  on  the  contrary, 
i  should  be  freed  from  this  godless  idolatry  of  parasites,  and 


THE  BULL   OF  EXCOMMUNICATION. 


207 


be  placed  in  a  position  where  he  would  be  able  to  live  on  some 
smaller  ecclesiastical  preferment,  or  on  his  own 
As  for  the  historical  retrospect  which  Miltitz 


)  live  on  some  » 
1  patrimony.  ) 
wanted,  and  / 


Fig.  23.— Title-page,  slightly  reduced,  of  the  original  Tract  •  On  the  Liberty 
of  a  Christian  Man.'  The  Saxon  swords  are  represented  above,  and 
the  arms  of  Wittenberg  below. 

w^hich  Luther  briefly  appends  to  this  letter,  all  that  the  latter] 
says  in  vindication  of  himself  is,  that  it  was  not  his  own! 
fault,  but  that  of  his  enemies,  who  had  driven  him  further 


2o8  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

and  further  onward,  that  '  no  small  part  of  the  unchristian 
doings  at  Eome  had  been  dragged  to  light.' 

Luther  sent  with  this  letter,  as  a  present  to  the  Pope,  a 
pamphlet  entitled  '  On  the  Liberty  of  a  Christian  Man.'  This 
is  no  controversial  treatise  intended  for  the  great  struggle  of 
churchmen  and  theologians,  but  a  tract  to  minister  to  '  simple 
men.'  For  their  benefit  he  wished  to  describe  compen- 
diously the  *  sum  of  a  Christian  life ' ;  to  deal  thoroughly 
with  the  question,  '  What  was  a  Christian  ?  and  how  he  was 
to  use  the  liberty  which  Christ  had  won  and  given  to  him.' 

He  ptremises  as  an  axiom  that  a  Christian  is  a  free  lord 
over  all  things,  and  subject  to  nobody.  He  considers,  first 
of  all,  the  new,  inner,  spiritual  man,  and  asks  what  makes 
him  a  good  and  free  Christian.  Nothing  external,  he  says, 
can  make  him  either  good  or  free.  It  does  not  profit  the  soul 
if  the  body  puts  on  sacred  vestments,  or  fasts,  or  prays  with 
the  lips.  To  make  the  soul  live,  and  be  good  and  free,  there 
is  nothing  else  in  heaven  or  on  earth  but  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
in  other  words,  God's  Word  of  comfort  by  His  dear  Son 
Jesus  Christ,  through  Whom  our  sins  are  forgiven  us.  In 
this  Word  the  soul  has  perfect  joy,  ha^Dpiness,  peace,  light, 
and  all  good  things  in  abundance.  And  to  obtain  this, 
nothing  more  is  required  of  the  soul  than  what  is  told  us  in 
the  Scriptures,  namely,  to  give  itself  to  Jesus  with  firm  faith 
and  to  trust  joyfully  in  Him.  At  first,  no  doubt,  God's  com- 
mand must  terrify  a  man,  seeing  that  it  must  be  fulfilled,  or 
man  condemned ;  but  when  once  he  has  been  brought 
thereby  to  recognise  his  own  w^orthlessness,  then  comes 
God's  promise  and  the  gospel,  and  says,  Have  faith  in 
Christ,  in  Whom  I  promise  thee  all  grace ;  believe  in  Him, 
and  thou  hast  Him.  A  right  faith  so  blends  the  sor.l  with 
God's  word,  that  the  virtues  of  the  latter  become  her  own, 
as  the  iron  becomes  glowing  hot  from  its  union  with  the 
fire.  And  the  soul  becomes  joined  to  Christ  as  a  bride  to  the 
bridegroom  ;  her  wedding-ring  is  faith.  All  that  Christ,  the 
rich  and  noble  bridegroom  possesses.  He  makes  His  bride's ; 


THE   BULL   OF  EXCOMMUNICATION.  209 

all  that  she  has,  He  takes  unto  Himself.  He  takes  upon 
Himself  her  sins,  so  that  they  are  swallowed  up  in  Him  and 
in  His  unconquerable  righteousness.  Thus  the  Christian  is 
exalted  above  all  things,  and  becomes  a  lord ;  for  nothing 
can  injure  his  salvation ;  everything  must  be  subject  to  him 
and  help  toAvards  his  salvation ;  it  is  a  spiritual  kingdom. 
And  thus  all  Christians  are  priests ;  they  can  all  approach 
God  through  Christ,  and  pray  for  others.  '  Who  can  com- 
prehend the  honour  and  dignity  of  a  Christian  ?  Through 
his  kingship  he  has  power  over  all  things,  through  his 
priesthood  he  has  power  over  God,  for  God  does  what  he 
desires  and  prays  for.' 

But  the  Christian,  as  Luther  states  in  his  second  axiom, 
is  not  only  this  new  inner  man.  He  has  another  will  in 
his  flesh,  which  would  make  him  captive  to  sin.  Accord- 
ingly, he  dare  not  be  idle,  but  must  work  hard  to  drive  out 
evil  lusts  and  mortify  his  body.  He  lives,  moreover,  among 
other  men  on  earth,  and  must  labour  together  with  them. 
And  as  Christ,  though  Himself  full  of  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
for  our  sake  stripped  Himself  of  His  power  and  ministered 
as  a  servant,  so  should  we  Christians,  to  whom  God  through 
Christ  has  given  the  Kingdom  of  all  goodness  and  blessed- 
ness, and  therewith  all  that  is  sufficient  to  satisfy  us,  do  freely 
and  cheerfully  for  our  heavenly  Father  whatever  pleases 
Him,  and  do  unto  our  neighbours  as  Christ  has  done  for  us. 
In  particular,  we  must  not  despise  the  weakness  and  weak 
faith  of  our  neighbour,  nor  vex  him  with  the  use  of  our 
liberty,  but  rather  minister  with  all  we  have  to  his  improve- 
ment. Thus  the  Christian,  who  is  a  free  lord  and  master, 
becomes  a  useful  servant  of  all  and  subject  to  all.  But  he 
does  these  works,  not  that  he  may  become  thereby  good  and 
blessed  in  the  sight  of  God ;  he  is  already  blessed  through  his 
faith,  and  what  he  does  now  he  does  freely  and  gratuitously. 
Luther  thus  sums  up  in  conclusion :  '  A  Christian  lives 
not  in  himself,  but  in  Christ  and  in  his  neighbour ;  in  Christ 
through  faith,  in  his  neighbour  through  love.  Through  faith 


2IO  THE    BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

he  rises  above  himself  in  God,  from  God  he  descends  again 
below  himself  through  love ;  and  yet  remains  always  m  God 
and  in  godlike  love.' 

This  tract  was  a  remarkable  pendant  to  Luther's  re- 
markable letter  to  the  Pope.  His  Holmess,  so  he  wrote  to 
him  in  his  dedication,  might  taste  from  its  contents  what 
kind  of  occupation  the  author  would  rather,  and  might 
with  more  profit,  be  engaged  m,  if  only  the  godless  Papal 
flatterers  did  not  hinder  hmi.  And  in  fact  the  Pope  could 
plainly  see  from  it  how  Luther  lived  and  laboured,  with 
his  inmost  being,  in  these  profound  but  simple  ideas  of 
Christian  truth,  and  how  he  was  inwardly  compelled  and 
delighted  to  represent  them  in  then:  noble  simplicity. 
The  whole  tone  and  tenor  of  this  dedication,  so  tranquil, 
fervent,  and  tender,  shows  further  what  profound  peace 
reigned  in  the  soul  of  this  vehement  champion  of  the  faith, 
and  what  happiness  the  excommunicated  heretic  found 
in  his  God.  Next  to  Luther's  Address  to  the  German 
Nobility  and  his  Babylonian  Captivity,  this  tract  is  one  of 
the  most  important  contributions  of  his  pen  to  the  cause  of 
the  Reformation.  It  is  clear  from  its  pages  that  when 
Luther  wrote  his  letter,  at  the  request  of  Miltitz,  to  the 
Pope,  he  had  no  thought  of  making  peace  with  the  Papacy, 
or  of  even  a  moment's  truce  in  the  campaign. 

The  bull  of  excommunication  he  met  in  the  manner 
intimated  to  Spalatin  from  the  first.  He  launched  a  short 
tract  against  it,  '  On  the  new  Bull  and  Falsehoods  of  Eck,' 
treatmg  it  as  Eck's  forgery.  This  he  followed  up  with 
another  tract  in  German  and  Latin,  '  Against  the  Bull  of 
/Antichrist.'  He  was  resolved  to  unmask  the  blindness  and 
wickedness  of  the  Eoman  evil-doers.  He  saw  partly  his 
own  real  doctrines  perverted,  partly  the  Christian  and 
Scriptural  truth  that  his  doctrines  contained,  stigmatised  as 
heresy  and  condemned.  He  declared  that  if  the  Pope  did 
not  retract  and  condemn  this  bull,  no  one  would  doubt  that 
he  was  the  enemy  of  God  and  the  disturber  of  Christianity. 


THE  BULL   OF  EXCOMMUNICATION.  211 

He  then  solemnly  renewed,  on  November  17,  the  appeal  to 
a  Council,  which  he  had  made  two  years  before.  But  how 
was  his  attitude  changed  since  then !  He,  the  accused  and 
condemned  heretic,  now  himself  proclaims  condemnation 
and  ruin  to  his  enemy,  the  antichristian  power  that  seeks  to 
domineer  the  world.  Nor  is  it  only  from  a  future  Council, 
and  one  constituted  as  the  previous  great  assemblies  of  the 
Church,  that  he  expects  and  demands  protection  for  himself 
and  the  Christian  truth ;  again  and  again  he  calls  upon  the 
Christian  laity  to  assist  him.  Thus  m  his  appeal  now 
published,  he  invites  the  Emperor  Charles,  the  Electors  and 
Princes  of  the  Empire,  the  counts,  barons,  and  nobles,  the 
town  councils,  and  all  Christian  authorities  throughout 
Germany,  to  support  him  and  his  appeal,  that  so  the  true 
Christian  belief  and  the  freedom  of  a  Council  might  be 
saved.  Similarly,  in  the  Latin  edition  of  his  tract  against  the 
bull,  he  calls  upon  the  Emperor  Charles,  on  Christian  kings 
and  princes  and  all  who  believe  in  Christ,  together  with 
all  Christian  bishops  and  learned  doctors,  to  resist  the 
iniquities  of  the  Popedom.  In  his  German  version  he 
defends  himself  against  the  charge  of  stirring  up  the  laity 
against  the  Pope  and  priesthood ;  but  he  asks  if,  indeed, 
the  laity  will,  be  reconciled,  or  the  Pope  excused,  by  the 
command  to  burn  the  truth.  The  Pope  himself,  he  says, 
and  his  bishops,  priests,  and  monks  are  wrestling  to  their 
own  downfall,  through  this  iniquitous  bull,  and  want  to 
bring  upon  themselves  the  hatred  of  the  laity.  'What 
wonder  were  it,  should  princes,  nobles,  and  laymen  beat 
them  on  the  head,  and  hunt  them  out  of  the  country  ?  ' 

Hütten  now  followed  with  a  stormy  demand  for  a  general 
rising  of  Germany  against  the  tyranny  of  Eome,  whose 
hirelings  and  emissaries  were  to  be  chased  away  by  main 
force.  When  two  papal  legates,  Aleander  and  Caraccioli, 
appeared  on  the  Rhine  to  execute  the  bull  and  work  upon 
the  Emperor  in  person,  he  was  anxious  to  strike  a  blow  at 
them  on  his  own  account,  little  good  as,  on  calm  reflection, 

p2 


212  THE   BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

it  was  evident  could  have  come  of  it.  Luther,  on  hearing 
of  it,  could  not  refrain  remarking  in  a  letter  to  Spalatin, 
'  If  only  he  had  caught  them  ! ' 

Luther  however  persisted  in  repeatmg  to  himself  and  his 
friends  the  warning  of  the  Psalmist,  '  Put  not  your  trust  in 
princes,  nor  in  any  child  of  man,  for  there  is  no  help  in  them.' 
Nay,  when  Spalatin,  who  had  gone  wdth  the  Elector  to  the 
Emperor,  told  him  how  little  was  to  be  hoped  for  from  the 
latter,  he  expressed  to  him  his  joy  at  finding  that  he  too  had 
learned  the  same  lesson.  God,  he  said,  would  never  have 
entrusted  simple  fishermen  with  the  Gospel,  if  it  had  needed 
worldly  potentates  to  propagate  it.  It  was  to  the  Last  Day 
that  he  looked  with  full  confidence  for  the  overthrow  of  Anti- 
christ. And,  indeed,  his  idea  that  Antichrist  had  long 
reigned  at  Kome  was  connected  in  his  mind  with  the  belief 
that  the  Last  Day  was  close  at  hand.  Of  this,  as  he  wrote 
to  Spalatin,  he  was  convinced,  and  for  many  strong  reasons. 

And  in  fact  the  Emperor  Charles,  before  leaving  the 
Netherlands,  on  his  journey  to  Aix-la-Chapelle  to  be  crowned, 
had  already  been  induced  by  Aleander  to  take  his  first  step 
against  Luther.  He  had  consented  to  the  execution  of  the 
sentence  in  the  bull,  condemning  Luther's  works  to  be 
burnt,  and  had  issued  orders  to  that  effect  throughout 
the  Netherlands.  They  were  burnt  in  public  at  Louvain, 
Cologne,  and  Mayence.  At  Cologne  this  was  done  while  he 
was  staying  there.  It  was  in  this  town  that  the  two  legates 
approached  the  Elector  Frederick  with  the  demand  to  have 
the  same  done  in  his  territory,  and  to  execute  due  punish- 
ment on  the  heretic  himself,  or  at  least  to  keep  him  close 
prisoner,  or  deliver  him  over  lo  the  Pope.  Frederick  however 
refused,  saying  that  Luther  must  first  be  heard  by  impartial 
judges.  Erasmus  also,  who  was  then  staying  at  Cologne, 
expressed  himself  to  the  same  effect,  in  an  opinion  obtained 
from  him  by  Frederick  through  Spalatin.  At  an  interview 
with  the  Elector  he  said  to  him,  '  Luther  has  committed  two 
great  faults  ;  he  has  touched  the  Pope  on  his  crown  and  the 


THE  BULL   OF  EXCOMMUNICATION. 


2I-; 


monks  on  their  bellies.'  The  Archbishop  of  Mayence,  Cardinal 
Albert,  received  directions  from  the  Pope  to  take  more  deci- 
sive and  energetic  steps  against  Hütten  as  well.  The  burning 
of  Luther's  books  at  Mayence  was  effected  without  hindrance, 
though  Hütten  was  able  to  inform  Luther  that,  according 
to  the  account  received  from  a  friend,  Aleander  narrowly 
escaped  stoning,  and  the  multitude  were  all  the  more  in- 
flamed in  favour  of  Luther.  The  legates  in  triumph  pro- 
ceeded to  carry  out  their  mission  elsewhere 

Luther,  however,  lost  no  time  in  following  up  their 
execution  of  the  bull  with  his  reply.  On  December  10  he 
posted  a  public  announcement  that  the  next  morning,  at 
nine  o'clock,  the  antichristian  decretals,  that  is,  the  Papal 
law-books,  would  be  burnt,  and  he  invited  all  the  Wittenberg 
students  to  attend.  He  chose  for  this  purpose  a  spot  in 
front  of  the  Elster  Gate,  to  the  east  of  the  town,  near  the 
Augustinian  convent.  A  multitude  poured  forth  to  the 
scene.  ^V^th  Luther  appeared  a  number  of  other  doctors  and 
masters,  and  among  them  Melancthon  and  Carlstadi.  After 
one  of  the  masters  of  arts  had  built  up  a  pile,  Luther  laid  the 
decretals  upon  it,  and  the  former  applied  the  fire.  Luther 
then  threw  the  Papal  bull  into  the  flames,  with  the  words 
*  Because  thou  hast  vexed  the  Holy  One  of  the  Lord,^  let  the 
everlasting  fire  consume  thee.'  Whilst  Luther  with  the  other 
teachers  returned  to  the  town,  some  hundreds  of  students 
remained  upon  the  scene,  and  sang  a  Te  Deum,  and  a 
Dirge  for  the  decretals.  After  the  ten  o'clock  meal,  some  of 
the  young  students,  grotesquely  attired,  drove  through  the 
town  in  a  large  carriage,  with  a  banner  emblazoned  with 
a  bull  four  yards  in  length,  amidst  the  blowing  of  brass 
trumpets  and  other  absurdities.  They  collected  from  all 
quarters  a  mass  of  Scholastic  and  Papal  writings,  and 
especially  those  of  Eck,  and  hastened  with  them  and  the 

'  It  is  obvious  that  he  refers  to  Christ,  who  is  spoken  of  in  Scripture  as 
the  Holy  One  of  God  (St.  Mark  i.  24,  Acts  ii.  27),  not,  as  ignorance  and 
malice  have  suggested,  to  himself. 


214  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

bull,  to  the  pile,  which  their  companions  had  meanwhile 
kept  alight.  Another  Te  Deum  was  then  sung,  with  a 
requiem,  and  the  hymn  '  0  du  armer  Judas.' 

Luther  at  his  lecture  the  next  day  told  his  hearers  with 
great  earnestness  and  emotion  what  he  had  done.  The 
Papal  chair  he  said,  would  yet  have  to  be  burnt.  Unless 
with  all  their  hearts  they  abjured  the  Kingdom  of  the  Pope, 
they  could  not  obtain  salvation. 

He  next  announced  and  justified  his  act  in  a  short  treatise 
entitled  '  Why  the  Books  of  the  Pope  and  his  disciples  were 
burnt  by  Dr.  Martin  Luther.'  '  I,  Martin  Luther,'  he  says, 
*  doctor  of  Holy  Scripture,  an  Augustinian  of  Wittenberg, 
make  known  hereby  to  everyone,  that  by  my  wish,  advice, 
and  act,  on  Monday  after  St.  Nicholas'  day,  in  the  year  1520, 
the  books  of  the  Pope  of  Eome,  and  of  some  of  his  disciples, 
were  burnt.  If  anyone  w^onders,  as  I  fully  expect  they  will, 
and  asks  for  what  reason  and  by  whose  command  I  did  it, 
let  this  be  his  answer.'  Luther  considers  it  his  bounden  duty, 
as  a  baptized  Christian,  a  sworn  doctor  of  Holy  Scripture, 
and  a  daily  preacher,  to  root  out,  on  account  of  his  office,  all 
unchristian  doctrines.  The  example  ol  others,  on  whom  the 
same  duty  devolved,  but  who  shrank  from  doing  as  he  did, 
would  not  deter  him.  'I  should  not,'  he  says,  'be  excused 
in  my  own  sight ;  of  that  my  conscience  is  assured,  and  my 
spirit,  by  God's  grace,  has  been  roused  to  the  necessary 
courage.'  He  then  proceeds  to  cite  from  the  law-books  thirty 
erroneous  doctrines,  in  glorification  of  the  Papacy,  which  de- 
served to  be  burnt.  The  sum  total  of  this  Canon  law  was  as 
follows :  *  The  Pope  is  a  God  on  earth,  above  all  things, 
heavenly  and  earthly,  spiritual  and  temporal,  and  every- 
thing is  his,  since  no  one  durst  say.  What  doest  thou  ?'  This, 
says  Luther,  is  the  abomination  of  desolation  (St.  Matth. 
xxiv.  15),  or  in  other  words  Antichrist  (2  Thess.  ii.  4). 

Simultaneously  with  this,  he  set  out  in  a  longer  and 
exhaustive  work  the  *  ground  and  reason '  of  all  his  own 
articles  which  had  been  condemned  by  the  bull.     He  takes 


THE  BULL    OF  EXCOMMUNICATION.  215 

his  stand  upon  God's  word  in  Scripture  against  the  dog- 
mas of  the  earthly  God ; — upon  the  revelation  by  God 
Himself,  which,  to  everyone  who  studies  it  deeply  and  wdth 
devotion,  will  lighten  his  understanding,  and  make  clear  its 
substance  and  meaning.  What  though,  as  he  is  reminded, 
he  is  only  a  solitary,  humble  man,  he  is  sure  of  this,  that 
God's  Word  is  with  him. 

To  Staupitz,  who  felt  faint-hearted  and  desponding 
about  the  bull,  Luther  wrote,  saying  that,  when  burning 
it,  he  trembled  at  first  and  prayed ;  but  now  he  felt  more 
rejoiced  than  at  any  other  act  in  all  his  life.  He  now  released 
himself  finally  from  the  restraints  of  those  monastic  rules, 
with  which,  as  we  have  remarked  before,  he  had  always  tor- 
mented himself,  besides  performing  the  higher  duties  of  his 
calling.  He  was  freed  now,  as  he  wrote  to  his  friend  Lange, 
by  the  authority  of  the  bull,  from  the  commands  of  his  Order 
and  of  the  Pope,  being  now  an  excommunicated  man.  Of  this 
he  was  glad ;  he  retained  merely  the  garb  and  lodging  of  a 
monk :  he  had  more  than  enough  of  real  duties  to  perform 
with  his  daily  lectures  and  sermons,  with  his  constant 
writings,  educational,  edifying,  and  polemical,  and  with  his 
letters,  discourses,  and  the  assistance  he  was  able  to  give 
his  brethren. 

By  this  bold  act,  Luther  consummated  his  final  rupture 
with  the  Papal  system,  which  for  centuries  had  dominated 
the  Christian  world,  and  had  identified  itself  with  Chris- 
tianity. The  news  of  it  must  also  have  made  the  fire  which 
his  words  had  kindled  throughout  Germany,  blaze  out  in  all 
its  violence.  He  saw  now,  as  he  wrote  to  Staupitz,  a  storm 
ragmg,  such  as  only  the  Last  Day  could  allay ;  so  fiercely 
were  passions  aroused  on  both  sides. 

Germany  was  then,  in  fact,  in  a  state  of  excitement  and 
tension  more  critical  than  at  any  other  period  of  her  history. 
Side  by  side  with  Luther  stood  Hütten,  in  the  forefront  of 
the  battle  with  Kome.  The  bull  he  published  with  sarcastic 
comments :  the  burning  of  Luther's  works  of  devotion  he 


2i6  THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

denounced  in  Latin  and  German  verses.  Eberlin  von 
Günzburg,  who  shortly  after  began  to  wield  his  pen  as  a 
popular  writer  on  reform,  called  these  two  men  '  two  chosen 
messengers  of  God.'  A  German  Litany,  which  appeared 
early  in  1521,  implored  God's  grace  and  help  for  Martin 
Luther,  the  unshaken  pillar  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  for 
the  brave  German  knight  Ulrich  Hütten,  his  Pylades. 

Hütten  also  wrote  now  in  German  for  the  German 
people,  both  in  prose  and  verse.  During  his  stay  with 
Sickingen  in  the  winter  at  his  Castle  of  Ebernburg,  he  read 
to  him  Luther's  works,  which  roused  in  this  powerful  warrior 
an  active  sympathy  with  the  doatriaes  of  the  Eeformation, 
and  stirred  up  projects  in  his  mind,  r^  what  his  own  strong 
arm  could  accomplish  for  the  good  cause. 

Pamphlets,  both  anonymous  and  pseudonymous,  were 
circulated  in  increasing  numbers  among  the  people.  They 
took  the  form  chiefly  of  dialogues,  in  which  laymen,  in  a 
simple  Christian  spirit,  and  with  their  natural  mider- 
standing,  complain  of  the  needs  of  Christendom,  ask  ques- 
tions and  are  enlightened.  The  outward  evils  of  the  Papal 
system  are  put  clearly  before  the  people: — the  scandals 
among  the  priesthood  and  in  the  convents,  the  iniquities  of 
the  Romish  courtiers  and  creatures  of  the  Pope,  who  pandered 
with  menial  subservience  to  the  magnates  at  Rome,  in  order 
to  fatten  on  German  benefices,  and  reap  their  harvest  of  taxes 
and  extortions  of  every  kind.  The  simple  Word  of  God,  with 
its  sublime  evangelical  truths,  must  be  freed  from  the  sophis- 
tries woven  round  it  by  man,  and  be  made  accessible  to  all 
without  distinction.  Luther  is  represented  as  its  foremost 
champion,  and  a  true  man  of  the  people,  whose  testimony 
penetrated  to  the  heart.  His  portrait,  as  painted  by 
Cranach,  was  circulated  together  with  his  small  tracts.  In 
later  editions  the  Holy  Ghost  appears  in  the  form  of  a 
dove  hovering  above  his  head ;  his  enemies  spread  the 
calumny,  that  Luther  intended  this  emblem  to  represent 
himself. 


THE   BULL    OF  EXCOMMUNICATION.  217 

Satirical  pictures  also  were  used  as  weapons  on  both 
sides  in  this  contest.  Cranach  pourtrayed  the  meek  and 
suffering  Saviour  on  one  side,  and  on  the  other  the  arrogant 
Koman  Antichrist,  in  the  twenty-six  woodcuts  of  his  '  Passion 
of  Christ  and  Antichrist : '  Luther  added  short  texts  to  these 
pictures. 

Luther's  enemies  now  began,  on  their  side,  to  write  in 
German  and  for  the  people.  The  most  talented  among 
them,  as  regards  vigorous,  popular  German  and  coarse 
satire,  was  the  Franciscan  Thomas  Murner;  but  his 
theology  seemed  to  Luther  so  weak,  that  he  only  favoured 
him  once  with  a  brief  allusion.  He  entered  now  into  a 
longer  literary  duel  with  the  Dresden  theologian  Emser, 
who  had  challenged  him  after  the  disputation  at  Leipzig, 
and  who  now  published  a  work  *  Against  the  Unchristian 
Address  of  Martin  Luther  to  the  German  Nobility.'  Luther 
replied  with  a  tract  '  To  the  Goat  at  Leipzig,'  Emser  with 
another  '  To  the  Bull  at  Wittenberg,'  Luther  with  another 
*  On  the  Answer  of  the  Goat  at  Leipzig,'  and  Emser  with 
a  third,  '  On  the  furious  Answer  of  the  Bull  at  Wittenberg.' 
Luther,  whose  reply  to  Emser's  original  work  had  been 
directed  to  the  first  sheets  that  appeared,  met  the  work, 
when  published  in  its  complete  form,  with  his  '  Answer  to 
the  over- Christian,  over-priestly,  over-artful  Book  of  the 
Goat  Emser.'  Emser  followed  up  with  a  '  Quadruplica,'  to 
which  Luther  rejoined  with  another  treatise  entitled  *A 
Eefutation  by  Doctor  Luther  of  Emser's  error,  extorted  by  the 
most  learned  priest  of  God,  H.  Emser.'  When  later,  during 
Luther's  residence  at  the  Wartburg,  Emser  pubhshed  a 
reply,  Luther  let  him  have  the  last  word.  Nothing  new 
was  contributed  to  the  great  struggle  by  this  interchange  of 
polemics.  The  most  effective  point  made  by  Emser  and 
the  other  defenders  of  the  old  Church  system,  was  the  old 
charge  that  Luther,  one  man,  presumed  to  oppose  the  whole 
of  Christendom  as  hitherto  constituted,  and  by  the  over- 
throw of  all  foundations  and  authorities  of  the  Church, 


2i8  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

to  bring  unbelief,  distraction,  and  disturbance  upon  Church 
and  State.  Thus  Emser  says  once  in  German  doggrel, 
that  Luther  imagined  that 

What  Church  and  Fathers  teach  was  nought ; 
None  lived  but  Luther ;— so  he  thought. 

In  threatenmg  Luther  with  the  consequences  of  his 
heresy,  he  never  failed  to  hold  up  Huss  as  a  bugbear. 

In  Germany,  as  Emser  complains,  there  was  already 
*  such  quarrelling,  noise,  and  uproar,  that  not  a  district, 
town,  village,  or  house  was  free  from  partisans,  and  one 
man  was  against  another.'  Aleander  wrote  to  Eome  saying 
that  everywhere  exasperation  and  excitement  prevailed,  and 
the  Papal  bull  was  laughed  at.  Among  the  adherents 
of  the  old  Church  system  one  heard  rumours  of  strange 
and  terrible  import.  A  letter  written  shortly  after  the 
burning  of  the  bull,  gave  out  that  Luther  reckoned  on 
thirty-five  thousand  Bohemians,  and  as  many  Saxons 
and  other  North  Germans,  who  were  ready,  like  the  Goths 
and  Vandals  of  old,  to  march  on  Italy  and  Eome.  But 
it  was  evident,  even  at  this  stage,  that  from  rancorous 
words  to  energetic  and  self-sacrificing  action  was  a  long 
step  to  take.  Even  in  central  Germany  the  bull  was 
executed  without  any  disturbance  breaking  out ;  and  that 
in  the  bishoprics  of  Meissen  and  Merseburg,  which  were 
adjacent  to  Wittenberg.  Pirkheimer  and  Spengler  at 
Nuremberg,  whose  names  Eck  had  included  in  the  bull, 
now  bowedlto  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  represented  though 
it  was  by  their  personal  enemy. 

Hütten,  who  saw  his  hopes  in  the  Emperor's  brother 
deceived,  and  believed  his  own  liberty  and  even  his  life 
was  menaced  by  the  Papal  bull,  burned  with  impatient  ar- 
dour to  strike  a  blow.  He  was  anxious  also  to  see  whether 
a  resort  to  force,  after  his  own  meaning  of  the  term,  would 
meet  with  any  support  from  the  Elector  Frederick.  He 
ventured  even,  when  speaking  of  Sickin^en's  lofty  mission, 


THE  BULL   OF  EXCOMMUNICATION.  215)'  Q  T  it 

to  refer  to  the  precedent  of  Ziska,  the  powerful  champfei^ of.  \5\  ^ 
the  Hussites,  who  had  once  been  the  terror  and  abommatioir_L*---^ 
of  the  Germans.  He,  a  member  of  the  proud  Equestrian 
order,  was  wilhng  now  to  join  hands  with  the  towns  and 
the  burghers  to  do  battle  with  Eome  for  the  hberty  of 
Germany.  But,  passionate  as  were  his  words,  it  was  by  no 
:neans  clear  what  particular  end  under  present  circumstances 
he  sought  to' achieve  by  means  of  arms.  Sickingen,  who 
had  grasped  the  situation  in  a  practical  spirit,  advised  him 
to  moderate  his  impatience,  and  sought,  for  his  own  part, 
to  keep  on  good  terms  with  the  Emperor,  in  whom  Hütten 
accordingly  renewed  his  hopes.  Each,  in  short,  had  over- 
rated the  influence  which  Sickingen  really  possessed  with 
the  Emperor. 

In  this  posture  of  affairs,  Luther  reverted,  with  increased 
conviction,  to  his  original  opinion,  that  the  future  must  be  left 
with  God  alone,  without  trusting  to  the  help  of  man.  Hütten 
himself  had  written  to  him,  during  the  Diet  of  Worms,  as 
follows :  *  I  will  fight  manfully  with  you  for  Christ ;  but  our 
counsels  differ  in  this  respect,  that  mine  are  human,  while 
you,  more  perfect  than  I  am,  trust  solely  in  those  of  God.' 
And  when  Hütten  seemed  really  bent  on  taking  the  sword, 
Luther  declared  to  him  and  to  others,  with  all  decision  of 
purpose  :  *  I  would  not  have  man  fight  with  force  and  blood- 
shed for  the  Gospel.  By  the  Word  has  the  world  been  sub- 
dued, by  the  Word  has  the  Church  been  preserved,  by  the 
Word  will  she  be  restored.  As  Antichrist  has  begun  without 
a  blow,  so  without  a  blow  will  Antichrist  be  crushed  by  the 
Word.'  Even  against  the  Komish  hirelings  among  the  Ger- 
man clergy,  he  would  have  no  acts  of  violence  committed, 
such  as  were  committed  in  Bohemia.  He  had  not  laboured 
with  the  German  nobility  to  have  such  men  restrained  by  the 
sword,  but  by  advice  and  command.  He  was  only  afraid 
that  their  own  rage  would  not  allow  of  peaceful  means  to 
check  them,  but  would  bring  misery  and  disaster  upon 
their  heads. 


220  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

His  expectation— not  indeed  ungrounded— of  the  ap- 
proaching end  of  the  world,  to  which,  as  we  have  seen,  he 
alhided  in  a  letter  to  Spalatin  on  January  16,  1521,  Luther 
now  announced  more  fully  in  a  book,  written  in  answer  to 
an  attack  by  the  Eomish  theologian  Ambrosius  Catharinus. 
He  based  his  opinion  on  the  prophecies  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  on  which  Christian  men  and  Christian  commu- 
nities, sore  pressed  in  the  battle  with  the  powers  of  darkness, 
had  been  wont  ere  then  to  rely,  in  the  sure  hope  of  the  ap- 
proaching victory  of  God.  Luther  referred  in  particular  to 
the  vision  of  Daniel  (chap,  viii.),  where  he  states  that  after 
the  four  great  Kingdoms  of  the  World,  the  last  of  which 
Luther  takes  to  be  the  Eoman  Empire,  a  bold  and  crafty 
ruler  should  rise  up,  and  *  by  his  policy  should  cause  craft 
to  prosper  in  his  hand,  and  should  stand  up  against  the 
Prince  of  princes,  but  should  be  broken  without  hand.'  He 
saw  this  vision  fulfilled  in  the  Popedom  ;  which  must,  there- 
fore, be  destroyed  '  without  hand,'  or  outward  force.  St. 
Paul,  in  his  view,  said  the  same  in  the  passage  in  which 
(2  Thess.  ii.)  he  foreshadowed  long  before  the  Eoman  Anti- 
christ. That  '  man  of  sin  '  who  set  himself  up  as  God  in  the 
temple  of  God,  '  the  Lord  shall  consume  with  the  spirit  of  His 
mouth,  and  shall  destroy  with  the  brightness  of  His  coming.' 
So,  said  Luther,  the  Pope  and  his  kingdom  would  not  be 
destroyed  by  the  laity,  but  would  be  reserved  for  a  heavier 
punishment  until  the  coming  of  Christ.  He  must  fall,  as 
he  had  raised  himself,  not '  with  the  hand,'  but  with  the  spirit 
of  Satan.  The  Spirit  must  kill  the  spirit ;  the  truth  must 
reveal  deceit. 

Luther,  as  we  shall  see,  had  all  his  life  held  firmly  to 
this  belief  that  the  end  was  near.  As  his  glowing  zeal 
pictured  the  loftiest  images  and  contrasts  to  his  mind,  so 
also  this  assurance  of  victory  was  already  before  his  eyes. 
In  his  hope  of  the  near  completion  of  the  earthly  history 
of  Christianity  and  mankind,  he  became  the  instrument  of 
carving  out  a  new  grand  chapter  in  its  career. 


THE  BULL  OF  EXCOMMUNICATION.  221 

The  announcement  of  the  retractation  required  from 
Luther  by  the  bull,  was  to  have  been  sent  to  Eome  within 
120  days.  Luther  had  given  his  answer.  The  Pope 
declared  that  the  time  of  grace  had  expired ;  and  on 
the  3rd  of  January  Leo  X.  finally  pronounced  the  ban 
against  Luther  and  his  followers,  and  an  interdict  on  the 
places  where  they  were  harboured. 


222  THE  BREACH    WiTH  ROME. 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

THE   DIET   OF   WOKMS. 

If  we  consider  the  powerful  influences  then  at  work  to 
further  the  ecclesiastical  movement  in  Germany,  it  seems 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  they  would  succeed  in  accom- 
plishing its  ends  through  the  power  of  the  Word  alone, 
without  any  such  bloodshed  and  political  convulsions  as  were 
feared ;  and  that  Germany,  therefore,  though  vexed  with 
spiritual  tempests — the  *  tumult  and  uproar '  whose  out- 
burst Luther  already  discerned — must  inevitably  rid  herself 
of  the  forms  and  fetters  of  Komish  Churchdom,  by  the 
sheer  force  of  her  new  religious  convictions.  And,  in- 
deed, even  in  the  short  interval  since  Luther  had  com- 
menced, and  only  with  slow  steps  had  advanced  further 
in  the  contest,  a  success  had  been  attained  which  no  one 
at  the  beginning  could  have  ventured  to  expect,  or  even 
hope  for.  Frederick  the  Wise,  the  Nestor  among  the  great 
German  Princes  of  the  Empire,  had  plainly  freed  himself 
inwardly  from  those  fetters,  and  though,  as  yet,  he  did  not 
feel  himself  called  upon  to  express  his  sentiments  by  de- 
cisive action,  his  conduct,  nevertheless,  could  not  fail  to 
make  an  impression  on  those  about  him.  The  nobility  and 
burgher  class,  among  whom  the  new  doctrines  had  made 
most  progress,  were,  politically  speaking,  powerfully  repre- 
sented at  the  Diets.  The  most  important  of  the  spiritual 
lords,  the  Archbishop  of  Magdeburg  and  Mayence,  who  had 
most  cause  to  resent  Luther's  onslaught  on  indulgences, 
had  hitherto  adopted  a  cautious  and  expectant  attitude, 
which  left  him  free  to  join  at  some  future  time  a  national 
revolt  against  his  Eomish  sovereign.   The  Diets,  indeed,  had 


THE  DIET  OF   WORMS.  223 

hitherto  submitted  to  their  old  ecclesiastical  grievances  with- 
out any  fear  of  the  wrath  or  scolding  of  the  Pope.  But,  as 
soon  as  the  conviction  prevailed  among  the  Estates,  that  the 
pretensions  of  the  Roman  see  had  no  eternal,  Divine  founda- 
tion, they  could  take  in  hand  at  once,  on  their  own  account, 
the  reformation  of  the  Church.  As  for  the  episcopacy,  in 
particular,  Luther  had  never  desired,  as  his  Address  to  the 
Nobility  sufficiently  showed,  to  interfere  with  or  disturb  it  in 
any  way,  provided  only  the  bishops  would  feed  their  flocks 
according  to  God's  Word.  An  independent  German  epis- 
copate w^ould  then  have  been  well  able  to  undertake  the 
reforms  necessary  in  the  system  of  worship.  Luther  him- 
self, as  we  shall  see,  wished  and  continued  to  wish  that 
those  reforms*  should  be  as  few  and  simple  as  possible. 

In  the  various  German  states  which  afterwards  became 
Protestant,  the  work  of  reform  was  in  fact  accomplished, 
without  any  serious  agitation,  by  the  Princes  themselves,  in 
concert  with  their  Estates;  and  in  the  free  towns  by  the 
magistrates  and  representatives  of  the  burghers,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  its  opponents  were  supported  by  the 
majority  of  the  Empire  and  by  the  Emperor  himself,  who 
was  a  staunch  adherent  of  the  Eomish  system.  How  much 
easier,  in  comparison,  must  the  work  of  Evangelical  refor- 
mation have  been,  had  it  been  resolved  on  by  the  power  of 
the  Empire  itself,  in  accord  with  the  overwhelming  voice  of 
the  whole  nation. 

Reference  was  made,  and  in  significant  terms,  to  the 
savage  and  cruel  war  of  the  Hussites.  But  no  one  could 
deny  to  Luther's  teaching,  a  clearness,  a  religious  depth, 
and  a  freedom  from  fanaticism,  peculiar  to  itself,  and 
utterly  wanting  in  the  preaching  of  the  followers  of  Huss. 
Again,  the  wild  Hussite  wars,  which  were  still  fresh  in  the 
sorrowful  memory  of  the  Germans,  had  in  the  first  instance 
been  provoked  by  the  use  of  force,  on  the  part  of  the 
Church,  against  the  Bohemians.  When  Germany  revolted, 
Eome  found  no  such  means  of  force  at  her  command. 


224  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

It  might  fairly  be  questioned,  if  the  thought  were  worth 
pursuing,  whether  Luther  at  that  time  had  sufficient  ground 
for  looking  for  the  triumph  of  his  cause,  not  indeed  to  the 
power  of  the  Word  and  the  influences  then  active  in  his 
favour,  but  to  the  Day  of  the  Lord,  which  he  believed  was 
near. 

It  is  true  that  in  such  great  crises  of  history  as  this, 
the  final  issue  never  depends  alone  on  the  character  and 
conduct  of  particular  personages,  however  eminent  they 
may  be.  In  this  antichristian  system  of  the  Papacy, 
Luther  saw  Satanic  powers  at  work,  which  blinded  the 
human  heart,  and  might  mdeed  succeed,  by  dint  of  suffer- 
ing and  oiDjDression,  in  overcoming  for  the  moment  the 
Word  of  God,  but  which  could  never  finally  extirpate  or 
extinguish  it.  And  we  Protestants  must  confess  that  not 
only  did  a  great  mass  of  the  German  people  remain  bound 
by  the  spell  of  tradition,  but  that  even  to  honest  and 
independent-minded  adherents  of  the  old  system,  the 
interests  of  religion  and  morality  might  in  reality  have 
seemed  to  be  seriously  endangered  by  the  new  teaching 
and  by  the  breach  with  the  past.  But  never  did  the  most 
momentous  issue  in  the  fortunes  of  the  German  nation 
and  Church  rest  so  entirely  with  one  man  as  they  did  now 
with  the  German  Emperor.  Everything  depended  on  this, 
whether  he,  as  head  of  the  Empire,  should  take  the  great 
work  in  hand,  or  should  fling  his  authority  and  might  into 
the  opposite  scale. 

Charles  had  been  welcomed  in  Germany  as  one  whose 
youthful  heart  seemed  likely  to  respond  to  the  newly- 
awakened  life  and  aspirations ;  as  the  son  of  an  old 
German  princely  family,  who  by  his  election  as  Emperor 
had  won  a  triumph  over  the  foreign  king  Francis,  supported 
though  the  latter  was  by  the  Pope.  Eumour  now  alleged  that 
he  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Mendicant  Friars  :  the  Francis- 
can Glapio  was  his  confessor  and  influential  adviser,  the  very 
man  who  had  instigated  the  burning  of  Luther's  works. 


THE   DIET   OF    WORMS. 


225 


He  was,  however,  by  no  means  so  dependent  on  those 
about  him  as  might  have  been  supposed.    His  counsellors, 


PROGENIES  Dl\  VAV-  QVINTVS  ■  51C<  CAROLV5  -ILLE. 
iMPLRIICAESAR  LVMINALT  ORA'TVLIT 
AET       •       SVAE 
Ann  '  2n\  •  D 


XXXI 


XXXl 


T'H;'!.l!ii?F''l:"'7'^' 


Fig.  24.— Chakles  V.     (From  an  engraving  by  B.  Beham,  in  loJl.) 

in  the  general  interests  of  his  government,  pursued  an  inde- 
pendent line  of  policy,  and  Charles  himself,  even  in  these 

Q 


226  THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

his  youthful  days,  knew  to  assert  his  independence  as  a 
monarch  and  display  his  cleverness  as  a  statesman. 

But  a  German  he  was  not,  in  spite  of  his  grandfather 
Maximilian;  he  had  not  even  an  ordinary  knowledge  of 
the  German  language.  First  and  foremost,  he  was  King  of 
Spain  and  Naples;  in  his  Spanish  kingdom  he  retained, 
even  after  his  accession  to  the  imperial  dignity,  the  chief 
basis  of  his  power.  His  religious  training  and  education 
had  familiarised  him  only  with  the  strict  orthodoxy  of  the 
Church  and  his  duties  in  respect  to  her  traditional  ordi- 
nances. To  these  his  conscience  also  constrained  him 
to  adhere.  He  never  showed  any  inclination  to  investi- 
gate the  opposite  opinions  of  his  German  subjects,  at  least 
with  any  independent  or  critical  exercise  of  judgment.  A 
strict  regard  to  his  rights  and  duties  as  a  sovereign  was  his 
sole  guide,  next  to  his  religious  principles,  in  dictating  his 
conduct  towards  the  Church.  In  Spain  some  reforms  were 
being  then  introduced,  based  essentially  on  the  doctrines  and 
hierarchical  constitution  of  the  mediaeval  Church.  Stricter 
discipline,  in  particular,  was  observed  with  regard  to  the 
clergy  and  monks,  who  were  admonished  to  attend  more 
faithfully  to  their  duties  of  promoting  the  moral  and 
religious  welfare  of  the  people ;  and  the  result  was  seen  in 
a  revival  of  popular  interest  in  the  forms  and  ordinances  of 
religion.  Furthermore,  the  crown  enjoyed  certain  rights 
independently  of  the  Eoman  Curia :  an  absolute  monarchy 
was  here  ingeniously  united  with  Papal  absolutism.  Such 
a  union,  however,  sufficed  in  itself  to  make -any  severance 
of  the  German  Church  from  the  Papacy  impossible  under 
Charles  V.  The  unity  of  his  dominions  was  bound  up  with 
the  unity  of  the  Catholic  Church,  to  which  his  subjects, 
alike  in  Spain  and  Germany,  belonged.  Added  to  this,  he 
had  to  consider  his  foreign  policy.  Provoked  as  he  had  been 
by  Leo  X.,  who  had  leagued  with  France  to  prevent  his 
election,  still,  with  menaces  of  war  from  France,  he  saw  the 
prudence  of  cultivating  friendship,  and  contracting,  if  pos- 


THE  DIET  OF   WORMS. 


227 


sible,  an  alliance  with  the  Pope.  The  pressure  desirable 
for  this  purpose  could  now  be  supplied  by  means  of  the 
very  danger  with  which  the  Papacy  was  threatened  by  the 
great  German  heresy,  and  against  which  Kome  so  sorely 
needed-  the  aid  of  a  temporal  power.  At  the  same  time, 
Charles  was  far  too  astute  to  allow  his  regard  for  the 
Pope,  and  his  desire  for  the  unity  of  the  Church,  to 
entangle  his  policy  in  measures  for  which  his  own  power 
was  inadequate,  or  by  which  his  authority  might  be  shaken, 
and  possibly  destroyed.  Strengthened  as  was  his  monar- 
chical power  in  Spain,  in  Germany  he  found  it  hemmed 
in  and  fettered  by  the  Estates  of  the  Empire  and  the  whole 
contexture  of  political  relations. 

Such  were  the  main  points  of  view  which  determined 
for  Charles  V.  his  conduct  towards  Luther  and  his  cause. 
Luther  thus  was  at  least  a  passive  sharer  in  the  game  of 
high  policy jL  ecclesiastical  and  temporal,  now  being  played, 
and  h9;d  to  pursue  his  own  course  accordingly. 

The  imperial  court  was  quickly  enough  acquainted  with 
the  state  of  feeling  in  Germany.  The  Emperor  showed 
himself  prudent  at  this  juncture,  and  accessible  to  opinions 
differing  from  his  own,  however  small  cause  his  proclamations 
gave  to  the  friends  of  Luther  to  hope  for  any  positive  act  of 
favour  on  his  part. 

Whilst  Charles  was  on  his  way  up  the  Ehine,  to  hold,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  New  Year,  a  Diet  at  Worms,  the  Elector 
Frederick  approached  him  with  the  request  that  Luther 
should. at  least  be  heard  before  the  Emperor  took  any  pro- 
ceedings against  him.  The  Eniperor  informed  him  in  reply 
that  he  might  bring  Luther  for  this  purpose  to  Worms,  pro- 
mising that  the  monk  should  not  be  molested.  The  Elector, 
however,  felt  doubts  on  this  point :  possibly  he  thought  of 
the  danger  to  which  Huss  had  been  exposed  at  Constance. 
But  Luther,  to  w^hom  he  announced  through  Spalatin  the 
Emperor's  offer,  replied  immediately,  'If  I  am  summoned, 
I  wül,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned,  come ;  even  if  I  have  to 

q2 


228  THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

be  carried  there  ill;  for  no  man  can  doubt  that,  if  the 
Emperor  cahs  me,  I  am  called  by  the  Lord.'  Violence, 
he  said,  would  no  doubt  be  offered  him ;  but  God  still  lived, 
who  had  delivered  the  three  youths  from  the  fiery  furnace 
at  Babylon,  and  if  it  was  not  His  will  that  he  should  be 
saved,  his  head  was  of  little  value.  There  was  one  thing 
only  to  beseech  of  God,  that  the  Emperor  might  not  com- 
mence his  reign  by  shedding  innocent  blood  to  shield 
ungodliness  :  he  would  far  rather  perish  by  the  hands  of  the 
Eomanists  alone.  Some  time  before,  Luther  had  thought 
of  a  place  to  fly  to,  in  case  it  were  impossible  to  stay  at 
Wittenberg ;  Bohemia  was  always  open  to  him.  But  now 
he  roundly  declared,  '  I  will  not  fly,  still  less  can  I  recant.' 

Meanwhile  the  Emperor  began  to  reflect  whether  Luther, 
who  lay  already  under  the  ban  and  interdict,  ought  to  be 
admitted  to  the  place  of  the  Diet.  As  to  what  proceedings 
should  be  taken  against  him,  if  he  came,  long,  wavering, 
and  anxious  negotiations  now  took  place  between  the 
Emperor,  the  Estates,  and  the  legate  Aleander,  at  Worms, 
where  the  Estates  assembled  in  January,  and  the  Diet  was 
opened  on  the  28th. 

A  Papal  brief  demanded  the  Emperor  to  enforce  the 
bull,  by  which  Luther  was  now  definitely  condemned,  by 
an  imperial  edict.  In  vain,  he  vvrote,  had  God  girded  him 
with  the  sword  of  supreme  earthly  power,  if  he  did  not 
use  it  against  heretics,  who  were  even  worse  than  infidels. 
His  advisers,  however,  were  agreed  in  the  conviction  that 
he  could  not  move  in  this  matter  without  the  consent  of 
his  Estates.  Aleander  sought  to  gain  them  over  in  an 
elaborate  harangue.  He,  according  to  whose  principles  the 
appeal  to  a  Council  was  a  crime,  cleverly  diverted  from  him- 
self the  comparison  and  retort  which  his  present  arguments 
suggested,  and  insisted  all  the  more  on  his  complaint,  that 
Luther  always  despised  the  authority  of  Councils  and  would 
take  no  correction  from  anyone.  Glapio,  then  the  Emperor's 
confessor  and  diplomatist,  addressed  himself,  with  expres- 


THE  DIET  OE    WORMS.  229 

sions  of  wonderful  friendship,  to  Frederick's  chancellor, 
Brück.  Even  he  found  much  that  ^Yas  good  in  Luther's 
writings,  but  the  contents  of  *  his  book,  the  '  Babylonian 
Captivity,'  were  detestable.  All  that  need  be  done  was  that 
Luther  should  disclaim  or  retract  that  offensive  work,  so 
that  what  was  good  in  his  writings  might  bear  fruit  for  the 
Church,  and  Luther,  together  with  the  Emperor,  might 
co-operate  in  the  work  of  true  reform.  He  might  be  invited 
to  meet  some  learned,  impartial  men  at  a  suitable  place, 
and  submit  himself  to  their  judgment.  This,  at  all  events, 
would  be  a  happy  means  of  preventing  his  having  to  appear 
before  the  Emperor  and  the  Estates  of  the  Empire,  and  if 
he  persisted  in  refusing  to  recant,  of  deciding  then  and 
there  his  fate.  We  must  leave  it  an  open  question,  how  far 
Glapio  still  seriously  thought  it  possible,  by  dint  of  threats 
and  entreaties,  to  utilise  Luther  for  effecting  a  reform  in 
the  Spanish  sense,  and  as  an  instrument  against  any  Pope 
who  should  prove  hostile  to  the  Emperor.  But  the  Elector 
Frederick  would  undertake  no  responsibility  in  this  dark 
design  :  he  refused  flatly  to  grant  to  Glapio  the  private 
audience  he  desired. 

The  Emperor  acceded  so  far  to  the  urgency  of  the  Pope 
as  to  cause  a  draft  mandate  to  be  laid  before  the  Estates, 
proposing  that  Luther  should  be  arrested,  and  his  pi'otectors 
punished  for  high  treason.  The  Frankfort  deputy  wrote 
home :  '  The  monk  -makes  plenty  of  work.  Some  would 
gladly  crucify  him,  and  I  fear  he  will  hardly  escape  them ; 
only  they  must  take  care  that  he  does  not  rise  again  on  the 
third  day.'  After  seven  days'  excited  debate  in  the  Diet, 
in  which  the  Elector  took  a  prominent  and  lively  part,  an 
answer  to  the  imperial  mandate  was  at  length  agreed  upon, 
offering  for  consideration  '  whether,  inasmuch  as  Luther's 
preaching,  doctrines,  and  writings  had  awakened  among 
the  common  people  all  kinds  of  thoughts,  fancies,  and 
^desires,  any  good  result  or  advantage  would  accrue  from 
issuing  the  mandate  alone  in  all   its    stringency,  without 


230  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

first  having  cited  Luther  before  them  and  heard  him.' 
At  the  same  time,  his  examination  was  to  be  so  far 
restricted,  that  no  discussion  with  him  should  be  allowed, 
but  simply  the  question  put  to  him,  '  whether  or  not  he 
intended  to  insist  upon  the  writings  he  had  pubhshed 
agamst  our  holy  Christian  faith.'  If  he  retracted  them,  he 
should  be  heard  further  on  other  points  and  matters,  and 
dealt  with  in  all  equity  upon  them.  If,  on  the  contrary, 
he  persisted  in  all  or  any  of  the  articles  at  variance  with 
the  faith,  then  all  the  Estates  of  the  Empire  should,  with- 
out further  disputation,  adhere  to  and  help  to  maintain  the 
faith  handed  down  by  their  fathers,  and  the  imperial  edict 
should  then  go  abroad  throughout  the  land. 

The  Emperor,  accordingly,  on  March  6,  issued  a  citation 
to  Luther,  summoning  him  to  Worms,  to  give  '  information 
concerning  his  doctrines  and  books.'  An  imperial  herald 
was  sent  to  conduct  him.  In  the  event  of  his  disobeying 
the  citation,  or  refusing  to  retract,  the  Estates  declared 
their  consent  to  treat  him  as  an  open  heretic. 

Luther,  therefore,  had  to  renounce  at  once  all  hope  of 
having  the  truth  touching  his  articles  of  faith  tested  fairly 
at  Worms  by  the  standard  of  God's  word  in  Scripture. 
Spalatin  indicated  to  him  the  points  on  which,  according  to 
Glapio's  statement,  he  would  in  any  case  be  expected  to 
make  a  public  recantation. 

It  remained  still  doubtful,  however,  how  far  those  articles 
would  be  extended,  and  how  far  the  '  other  points '  might  be 
stretched,  or  possibly  be  made  the  subject  of  further  and 
profitable  discussion,  if  he  submitted  in  respect  to  the  former. 
Glapio  had  made  no  reference  to  the  question  of  the  patristic 
belief  in  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope,  or  his  absolute  power 
over  the  Church  collectively  and  her  Councils:  even  the 
Papal  nuncio  himself  had  not  ventured  to  touch  on  these 
subjects.  There  was  room  enough  for  the  more  liberal  and 
independent  principles  entertained  on  these  points  by  the 
members  of  the  earlier  reforming  Councils,  if  only  Luther 


THE  DIET  OF   WORMS.  231 

had  not  disputed  their  authority  with  that  of  Councils  alto- 
gether.    The  ecclesiastical  abuses,  against  which  the  Diet  | 
had  already  remonstrated  to  the  Pope,  were  just  now  at  ! 
Worms  the  subject  of  general  and  bitter  complaint.     The  I 
imposts  levied  by  Rome  on  ecclesiastical  benefices  and  fiefs, 
mere  outward  symbols  of  supremacy  it  is  true,  but  highly 
important  to  the  Pope,  swallowed  up  enormous  sums ;  while 
the  Empire  hardly  l^iew  how  to  scrape  together  a  miserable 
subsidy  for  the  newly  organised  government  and  the  expenses  / 
of  justice,  and  men  talked  openly  of  retaining  these  Papal  |  ■' 
tributes,  notwithstanding  all  protests  from  Eome,  for  these 
purposes.  Even  faithful  adherents  of  the  old  Church  system, 
like  Duke  George  of  Saxony,  demanded  a  comprehensive 
reformation  of  the  clergy,  whose  scandals  were  so  destructive 
of  religion,  and,  as  the  best  means  to  effect  this  reformation, 
a  General  Council  of  the  Church.     Aleander  had  to  report 
to  Rome,  that  all  parties  were  unanimous  in  this  desire,  so 
hateful  to  the  Pope  himself,  and  that  the  Germans  wished  I 
to  have  the  Council  in  their  own  country. 

Luther  formed  his  resolve  at  once  on  the  two  points 
required  of  him.     He  determined  to  obey  the  summons  to  \ 
the  Diet,  and,  if  there  unconvicted  of  error,  to  refuse  the 
recantation  demanded. 

The  Emperor's  .citation  was  delivered  to  him  on 
March  26  by  the  imperial  herald,  Kaspar  Sturm,  who 
was  to  accompany  him  to  Worms.  Within  twenty-one  days 
after  its  receipt,  Luther  was  to  appear  before  the  Emperor ; 
he  was  due  therefore  at  Worms  on  April  16,  at  the  latest. 

Up  till  now  he  had -continued  uninterruptedly  his  arduous 
and  multifarious  labours,  and,  to  use  his  own  expression, 
like  Nehemiah  he  carried  on  at  once  the  work  of  peace  and 
of  war ;  he  built  with  one  hand,  and  wielded  the  sword  with 
the  other.  His  controversy  with  Catharinus  he  brought 
quickly  to  a  conclusion.  During  March  he  finished  the 
first  part  of  his  Exposition  of  the  Gospel  as  read  in  church, 
which  he  had  undertaken,  as  a  peaceful  and  edifying  work,  at 


232  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME, 

the  request  of  the  Elector,  to  whom  he  wrote  a  dedication ; 
and  he  was  now  at  work  on  a  fervent  and  tender  prac- 
tical explanation  of  the  Magiiißcat,  which  he  had  intended 
for  his  devoted  friend,  Prmce  John  Frederick,  the  son 
of  Duke  John  and  nephew  of  the  Elector  Frederick.  He 
addressed  a  short  letter  to  him  on  March  31,  enclos- 
ing the  first  printed  sheets  of  this  treatise ;  and  the  next 
day  sent  him  the  epilogue,  addressed  to  his  friend  Link,  to 
his  reply  to  Catharinus,  dedicated  also  to  Link.  *  I  know,' 
he  says  here,  '  and  am  certam,  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
still  lives  and  rules.  Upon  this  knowledge  and  assurance 
I  rely,  and  therefore  I  will  not  fear  ten  thousand  Popes ; 
for  He  Who  is  with  us  is  greater  than  he  w^ho  is  in 
the  world.' 

On  the  following  day,  April  2,  the  Tuesday  after 
Easter,  he  set  out  on  his  way  to  Worms.  His  friend 
Amsdorf  and  the  Pomeranian  nobleman  Peter  Swaven,  who 
was  then  studying  at  Wittenberg,  accompanied  him.  He 
took  with  him  also,  according  to  the  rules  of  the  Order,  a 
brother  of  the  Order,  John  Pezensteiner.  The  Wittenberg 
magistracy  provided  carriages  and  horses. 

The  way  led  past  Leipzig,  through  Thuringia  from 
Naumburg  to  Eisenach,  then  southward  past  Berka,  Hers- 
feld,  Grünberg,  Friedberg,  Frankfort,  and  Oppenheim.  The 
herald  rode  on  before  in  his  coat  of  arms,  and  announced 
the  man  whose  word  had  everywhere  so  mightily  stirred  the 
minds  of  people,  and  for  whose  future  behaviour  and  fate 
friend  and  foe  were  alike  anxious.  Everywhere  people 
collected  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  him. 

On  April  6  he  was  very  solemnly  received  at  Erfurt. 
The  large  majority  of  the  university  there  were  by  this  time 
full  of  enthusiasm  for  his  cause.  His  friend  Crotus,  on 
his  return  from  Italy,  had  been  chosen  Kector.  The  ban  of 
excommunication  had  not  been  published  by  the  university, 
and  had  been  thrown  into  the  water  by  the  students. 
Justus  Jonas  was  foremost  in  zeal ;  and  even  Erasmus,  his 


THE  DIET  OF    WORMS.  233 

honoured  friend,  had  no  longer  been  able  to  restrain  him. 
Lange  and  others  were  active  in  preaching  among  the 
people. 

Jonas  hastened  to  Weimar  to  meet  Luther  on  his  ap- 
proach. Forty  members  of  the  university,  with  the  Kector  at 
their  head,  went  on  horseback,  accompanied  by  a  number  of 
others  on  foot,  to  welcome  him  at  the  boundary  of  the  town. 
Luther  had  also  a  small  retinue  with  him.  Crotus  expressed 
to  him  the  infinite  pleasure  it  was  to  see  him,  the  great 
champion  of  the  faith ;  whereupon  Luther  answered,  that 
he  did  not  deserve  such  praise,  but  he  thanked  them  for 
their  love.  The  poet  Eoban  also  stammered  out,  as  he  said 
of  himself,  a  few  words ;  he  afterwards  described  the  pro- 
gress in  a  set  of  Latin  songs. 

The  following  day,  a  Sunday,  Luther  spent  at  Erfurt. 
He  preached  there,  in  the  church  of  the  Augustine  convent,  a 
sermon  which  has  been  preserved.  Beginning  with  the  words 
of  the  Gospel  of  the  day,  '  Peace  be  unto  you,'  he  spoke  of 
the  peace  which  we  find  through  Christ  the  Eedeemer,  by 
faith  in  whom  and  in  his  work  of  salvation  we  are  justified, 
without  any  works  or  merit  of  our  own ;  of  the  freedom 
with  which  Christians  may  act  in  faith  and  love ;  and  of 
the  duty  of  every  man,  who  possessed  this  peace  of  God,  so 
to  order  his  work  and  conduct,  that  it  shall  be  useful  not 
only  to  himself  but  to  his  neighbour.  This  he  said  in  protest 
against  the  justification  by  works  taught  by  most  preachers, 
against  the  system  of  Papal  commands,  and  against  the 
wisdom  of  heathen  teachers,  of  an  Aristotle  or  a  Plato.  Of 
his  present  personal  position  and  the  difficult  path  he  had 
now  to  tread,  he  took  no  thought,  but  only  of  the  general 
obligation  he  was  under,  whatever  other  men  might  teach ; 
*  I  will  speak  the  truth  and  must  speak  it ;  for  that  reason  I 
am  here,  and  take  no  money  for  it.'  During  the  sermon  a 
crash  was  suddenly  heard  in  the  overweighted  balconies  of 
the  crowded  church,  the  doors  of  which  were  blocked  with 
multitudes  eager  to  hear  him.     The  crowd  were  about  to 


234  THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

♦ 
rush  out  in  a  panic,  when  Luther  exclaimed,  '  I  know  thy 
wiles,  thou   Satan,'  and  quieted  the  congregation  with  the 
assurance  that  no  danger  threatened,  it  was  only  the  devil 
who  was  carrying  on  his  wicked  sport. 

Luther  also  preached  in  the  Augustine  convents  at  Gotha 
and  Eisenach.  At  Gotha  the  people  thought  it  significant 
that  after  the  sermon  the  devil  tore  off  some  stones  from  the 
gable  of  the  church. 

Li  the  inns  Luther  liked  to  refresh  himself  with  music-, 
and  often  took  up  the  lute. 

At  Eisenach,  however,  he  was  seized  with  an  attack 
of  illness,  and  had  to  be  bled.  From  "Frankfort  he  writes 
to  Spalatin,  who  was  then  at  Worms,  that  he  felt  since 
then  a  degree  of  suffering  and  weakness  unknown  to  him 
before. 

On  the  way  he  found  a  new  imperial  edict  posted  up, 
which  ordered  all  his  books  to  be  seized,  as  having  been 
condemned  by  the  Pope  and  being  contrary  to  the  Christian 
faith.  Charles  Y.  by  this  edict  had  given  satisfaction  again 
to  the  legates,  who  were  annoyed  at  Luther  being  summoned 
to  Worms.  Many  doubted  whether  Luther,  after  this  con- 
demnation of  his  cause  by  the  Emperor,  would  venture  to 
present  himself  in  person  at  Worms.  He  himself  was 
alarmed,  but  travelled  on. 

Meanwhile  at  Worms  disquietude  and  .suspense  prevailed 
on  both  sides.  Hütten  from  the  Castle  of  Ebernburg  sent 
threatening  and  angry  letters  to  the  Papal  legates,  who 
became  really  anxious  lest  a  blow  might  be  struck  from 
that  quarter.  Aleander  complained  that  Sickingen  now  was 
king  in  Germany,  since  he  could  command  a  following 
whenever  and  as  large  as  he  pleased.  But  in  truth  he  was 
in  no  case  ready  for  an  attack  at  that  moment.  He  still 
reckoned  on  being  able,  with  his  Church  sympathies,  to 
remain  the  Emperor's  friend,  and  was  just  now  on  the 
point  of  taking  a  post  of  military  command  in  his  service. 
Some  anxious  friends  of  Luther's  were  afraid  that,  accord- 


THE  DIET  OF   WORxMS.  235 

ing  to  Papal  law,  the  safe-conduct  would  not  be  observed  in 
the  case  of  a  condemned  heretic.  Spalatin  himself  sent 
from  Worms  a  second  warning  to  Luther  after  he  had  left 
Frankfort,  intimating  that  he  would  suffer  the  fate  of  Huss. 

Meanwhile  Glapio,  on  the  other  side,  no  doubt  with  the 
knowledge  and  consent  of  his  imperial  master,  made  one 
more  attempt  in  a  very  unexpected  manner  to  influence 
Luther,  or  at  least  to  prevent  him  from  going  to  Worms. 
He  wxnt  Avith  the  imperial  chamberlain,  Paul  von  Armsdorf, 
to  Sickingen  and  Hütten  at  the  Castle  of  Ebernburg,  spoke 
of  Luther  as  he  had  formerly  done  to  Brück,  in  an  uncon- 
strained and  friendly  manner,  and  offered  to  hold  a  peace- 
able interview  with  Luther  in  Sickingen's  presence. 
Armsdorf  at  the  same  time  earnestly  dissuaded  Hütten 
from  his  attacks  and  threats  against  the  legates,  and  made 
him  the  offer  of  an  imperial  pension  if  he  would  desist. 
Had  Luther  agreed  to  this  proposal  and  gone  to  the 
Ebernburg,  he  could  not  have  reached  Worms  in  time  ;  the 
safe-conduct  promised  him  would  have  been  no  longer 
valid,  and  the  Emperor  would  have  been  free  to  act  against 
him.  Nevertheless  Sickingen  entered  into  the  proposal. 
The  danger  threatening  Luther  at  Worms  must  have 
appeared  still  greater  to  him,  and  Luther  could  then  have 
enjoyed  the  protection  of  his  castle,  which  he  had  offered 
him  before.  Martin  Butzer,  the  theologian  from  Schlettstadt, 
happened  then  to  be  with  Sickingen ;  he  had  already  met 
Luther  at  Heidelberg  in  1518,  had  then  learned  to  know 
him,  and  had  embraced  his  opinions.  He  was  now  com- 
missioned to  convey  this  invitation  to  him  at  Oppenheim, 
which  lay  on  Luther's  road. 

But  Luther  continued  on  his  v/ay.  He  told  Butzer  that 
Glapio  would  be  able  to  speak  with  him  at  Worms.  To 
Spalatin  he  replied,  though  Huss  were  burnt,  yet  the  truth 
was  not  burnt ;  he  would  go  to  Worms,  though  there  were 
as  many  devils  there  as  there  were  tiles  on  the  roofs  of  the 
houses. 


236  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME, 

On  April  16,  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  Luther 
entered  Worms.  He  sat  in  an  open  carriage  with  his  three 
companions  from  Wittenberg,  clothed  in  his  monk's  habit. 
He  was  accompanied  by  a  large  number  of  men  on  horse- 
back, some  of  whom,  like  Jonas,  had  joined  him  earlier  in 
his  journey,  others,  like  some  gentlemen  belonging  to  the 
Elector's  court,  had  ridden  out  from  Worms  to  receive  him. 
The  imperial  herald  rode  on  before.  The  watchman  blew  a 
horn  from  the  tower  of  the  cathedral  on  seeing  the  proces- 
sion a^Dproach  the  gate.  Thousands  streamed  hither  to  see 
Luther.  The  gentlemen  of  the  court  escorted  him  into 
the  house  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John,  where  he  lodged  with 
two  counsellors  of  the  Elector.  As  he  stepped  from  his 
carriage  he  said,  '  God  will  be  with  me.'  Aleander,  writing 
to  Eome,  said  that  he  looked  around  with  the  eyes  of  a 
demon. 

Crowds  of  distinguished  men,  ecclesiastics  and  laymen, 
who  were  anxious  to  know  him  personally,  flocked  daily  to 
see  him. 

On  the  evening  of  the  following  day  he  had  to  appear 
before  the  Diet,  which  was  assembled  in  the  Bishop's  palace, 
the  residence  of  the  Emperor,  not  far  from  where  Luther 
w^as  lodging.  He  was  conducted  thither  by  side  streets,  it 
being  impossible  to  get  through  the  crowds  assembled  in  the 
main  thoroughfare  to  see  him.  On  his  way  into  the  hall 
where  the  Diet  was  assembled,  tradition  tells  us  how  the 
famous  warrior,  George  von  Frundsberg,  clapped  him  on  the 
shoulder,  and  said  :  '  My  poor  monk  !  my  poor  monk !  thou 
art  on  thy  way  to  make  such  a  stand  fis  I  and  many  of 
my  knights  have  never  done  in  our  toughest  battles.  If 
thou  art  sure  of  the  justice  of  thy  cause,  then  forward  in 
the  name  of  God,  and  be  of  good  courage— God  will  not 
forsake  thee.'  The  Elector  had  given  Luther  as  his  advo- 
cate the  lawyer  Jerome  Schürf,  his  Wittenberg  colleague  and 
friend. 

When  at  length,  after  waiting  two  hours,  Luther  was 


THE  DIET  OF   WORMS.  237 

admitted  to  the  Diet,  Eck,'  the  official  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Treves,  put  to  him  simply,  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor, 
two  questions,  ^Yhether  he  acknowledged  the  books  (pointing 


Fig.  25. — Luth:^b.     (From  an  engraving  by  Cranach,  in  1521.) 

to  them  on  a  bench  beside  him)  to  be  his  own,  and  next, 
whether  he  would  retract  their  contents  or  persist  in  them. 

'  This  Eck  must  not  be  confused  with  the  other  John  Eck,  the  theo- 
logian. 


238  THE  BREACH    WITH  ROME. 

Schürf  here  exclaimed,  'Let  the  titles  of  the  books  be 
named.'  Eck  then  read  them  out.  Among  them  there  were 
some  merely  edifying  writings,  such  as  *A  Commentary 
on  the  Lord's  Prayer,'  which  had  never  been  made  the 
subject  of  complaint. 

Luther  was  not  prepared  for  this  proceeding,  and 
possibly  the  first  sight  of  the  august  assembly  made  him 
nervous.  He  answered  in  a  low  voice,  and  as  if  frightened, 
that  the  books  were  his,  but  that  since  the  question  as  to 
their  contents  concerned  the  highest  of  all  things,  the  Word 
of  God  and  the  salvation  of  souls,  he  must  beware  of  giving 
a  rash  answer,  and  must  therefore  humbly  entreat  further 
time  for  consideration. 

After  a  short  deliberation  the  Emperor  instructed  Eck 
to  reply  that  he  would,  out  of  his  clemency,  grant  him  a 
respite  till  the  next  day. 

So  Luther  had  again,  on  April  18,  a  Thursday,  to  appear 
before  the  Diet.  Again  he  had  to  wait  two  liours,  till  six 
o'clock.  He  stood  there  in  the  hall  among  the  dense  crowd, 
talking  unconstrained  and  cheerfully  with  the  ambassador 
of  the  Diet,  Peutinger,  his  patron  at  Augsburg. 

After  he  was  called  in,  Eck  began  by  reproaching  him 
for  having  wanted  time  for  consideration.  He  then  put 
the  second  question  to  him  in  a  form  more  befitting  and 
more  conformable  with  the  wishes  of  the  members  of  the 
Diet :  *  Wilt  thou  defend  all  the  books  acknowledged  by 
thee  to  be  thine,  or  recant  some  part  ? '  Luther  now 
answered  with  firmness  and  modesty,  in  a  well-considered 
speech.  He  divided  his  works  into  three  classes.  In 
some  of  them  he  had  set  forth  simple  evangelical  truths, 
professed  alike  by  friend  and  foe.  Those  he  could  on  no 
account  retract.  In  others  he  had  attacked  corrupt  laws 
and  doctrines  of  the  Papacy,  which  no  one  could  deny  had 
miserably  vexed  and  martyred  the  consciences  of  Christians, 
and  had  tyrannically  devoured  the  property  of  the  German 
nation ;  if  he  were  to  retract  these  books,  he  would  make 


THE  DIET  OF   WORMS.  239 

himself  a  cloak  for  wickedness  and  tyranny.  In  the  third 
class  of  his  books  he  had  written  against  individuals,  who 
endeavoured  to  shield  that  tyranny,  and  to  subvert  godly 
doctrine.  Against  these  he  freely  confessed  that  he  had 
been  more  violent  than  was  befitting.  Yet  even  these 
writings  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  retract,  without  lend- 
ing a  hand  to  tyranny  and  godlessness.  But  in  defence  of 
his  books  he  could  only  say  in  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  '  If  I  have  spoken  evil,  bear  witness  of  the  evil ;  but 
if  well,  why  smitest  thou  me  ? '  If  anyone  could  do  so,  let 
him  produce  his  evidence  and  confute  him  from  the  sacred 
writings,  the  Old  Testament  and  the  Gospel,  and  he  would 
be  the  first  to  throw  his  books  into  the  fire.  And  now,  as 
in  the  course  of  his  speech  he  had  sounded  a  new  challenge 
to  the  Papacy,  so  he  concluded  by  an  earnest  warning  to 
Emperor  and  Empire,  _  lest  by  endeavouring  to  promote 
peace  by  a  condemnation  of  the  Divine  Word,  they  might 
rather  bring  a  dreadful  deluge  of  evils,  and  thus  give  an 
unhappy  and  inauspicious  beginning  to  the  reign  of  the 
noble  young  Emperor.  He  said  not  these  things  as  if  the 
great  personages  who  heard  him  stood  in  any  need  of  his 
admonitions,  but  because  it  was  a  duty  that  he  owed  to  his 
native  Germany,  and  he  could  not  neglect  to  discharge  it. 

Luther,  like  Eck,  spoke  in  Latin,  and  then,  by  desire, 
repeated  his  speech  with  equ-al  firmness  in  German. 
Schürf,  who  was  standing  by  his  side,  declared  afterwards 
with  pride,  *  how  Martin  had  made  this  answer  with  such 
bravery  and  modest  candour,  with  eyes  upraised  to  Heaven, 
that  he  and  everyone  was  astonished.' 

The  princes  held  a  short  consultation  after  this  harangue. 
Then  Eck,  commissioned  by  the  Emperor,  sharply  reproved 
him  for  having  spoken  impertinently  and  not  reg-lly  answered 
the  question  put  to  him.  He  rejected  his  demand  that 
evidence  from  Scripture  might  be  brought  against  him,  by 
declaring  that  his  heresies  had  already  been  condemned  by 
the  Church,  and  in  particular  by  the  Council  of  Constance, 


240  THE  BREACH  WITH  ROME. 

and  such  judgments  must  suffice  if  anything  were  to  be 
held  settled  in  Christianity.  He  promised  him,  however, 
if  he  would  retract  the  offensive  articles,  that  his  other 
writings  should  be  fairly  dealt  with,  and  finally  demanded 
a  plain  answer  '  without  horns '  to  the  question,  whether  he 
intended  to  adhere  to  all  he  had  written,  or  would  retract 
any  part  of  it. 

To  this  Luther  replied  he  would  give  an  answer  *  with 
neither  horns  nor  teeth.'  Unless  he  were  refuted  by  proofs 
from  Scripture,  or  by  evident  reason,  his  conscience  bound 
him  to  adhere  to  the  Word  of  God  which  he  had  quoted  in 
his  defence.  Popes  and  Councils,  as  was  clear,  had  often 
erred  and  contradicted  themselves.  He  could  not,  there- 
fore, and  he  would  not,  retract  anything,  for  it  was  neither 
safe  nor  honest  to  act  against  one's  conscience. 

Eck  exchanged  only  a  few  more  words  with  him  in 
reply  to  his  assertion  that  Councils  had  erred.  'You  cannot 
prove  that,'  said  Eck.  *  I  will  pledge  myself  to  do  it,'  was 
Luther's  answer.  Pressed  and  threatened  by  his  enemy, 
he  concluded  with  the  famous  words :  '  Here  I  stand,  I 
can  do  no  otherwise.     God  help  me.     Amen.' 

The  Emperor  reluctantly  broke  up  the  Diet,  at  about 
eight  o'clock  in  the  evening.  Darkness  had  meanwhile 
come  on ;  the  hall  was  lighted  with  torches,  and  the  audience 
were  in  a  state  of  general  excitement  and  agitation.  Luther 
was  led  out ;  whereupon  an  uproar  arose  among  the 
Germans,  who  thought  that  he  had  been  taken  prisoner. 
As  he  stood  among  the  heated  crowd,  Duke  Erich  of 
Brunswick  sent  him  a  silver  tankard  of  Eimbeck  beer,  after 
having  first  drank  of  it  himself. 

On  reaching  his  lodging,  *  Luther,'  to  use  the  words  of 
a  Nüremberger  present  there,  *  stretched  out  his  hands,  and 
with  a  joyful  countenance  exclaimed,  "  I  am  through!  I  am 
through  !  "  '  Spalatin  says  :  '  He  entered  the  lodging  so 
courageous,  comforted  and  joyful  in  the  Lord,  that  he  said 
before  others  and  myself,  "  if  he  had  a  thousand  heads,  he 


THE  DIET  OF    IVOJ^MS.  241 

would  rather  have  them  all  cut  off  than  make  on(^  recanta- 
tion.' He  relates  also  how  the  Elector  Frederick,  hefore 
his  supper,  sent  for  him  from  Luther's  dwelling,  took 
him  into  his  room  and  expressed  to  him  his  astonishment 
and  delight  at  Luther's  speech.  *  How  excellently  did 
Father  Martin  speak  hoth  in  Latin  and  German  hefore 
the  Emperor  and  the  Orders.  He  was  hold  enough,  if  not 
too  much  so.'  The  Emperor,  on  the  contrary,  had  heen  so 
little  impressed  hy  Luther's  personality,  and  had  under- 
stood so  little  of  it,  that  he  fancied  the  writings  ascribed  to 
him  must  have  been  written  by  some  one  else.  Many  of 
his  Spaniards  had  pursued  Luther,  as  he  left  the  Diet,  with 
hisses  and  shouts  of  scorn. 

Luther,  by  refusing  thus  point-blank  to  retract,  effectually 
destroyed  whatever  hopes  of  mediation  or  reconciliation  had 
been  entertained  by  the  milder  and  more  moderate  adherents 
of  the  Church  who  still  wished  for  reform.  Nor  was  any 
union  possible  with  those  who,  while  looking  to  a  truly  repre- 
sentative Council  as  the  best  safeguard  against  the  tyranny 
of  a  Pope,  were  anxious  also  to  obtain  at  such  a  Council  a 
secure  and  final  settlement  of  all  questions  of  Christian 
faith  and  morals.  It  was  these  very  Councils  about  which 
Eck  purposely  called  on  Luther  for  a  declaration;  and 
Luther's  words  on  this  point  might  well  have  been  con- 
sidered by  the  Elector  äs  'too  bold.'  Aleander,  who  had 
used  such  efforts  to  prevent  Luther's  being  heard,  was  now 
well  satisfied  with  the  result.  But  Luther  remained  faithful 
to  himself.  True  it  was  that  he  had  often  formerly  spoken 
of  yielding  in  mere  externals,  and  of  the  duty  of  living  in 
love  and  harmony,  and  respecting  the  weaknesses  of  others  ; 
and  his  conduct  during  the  elaboration  of  his  own  Church 
system  will  show  us  how  well  he  knew  to  accommodate 
himself  to  the  time,  and,  where  perfection  was  impossible, 
to  be  content  with  what  was  imperfect.  But  the  question 
here  was  not  about  externals,  or  whether  a  given  proceeding 
were  judicious   or   not   for   the   attainment   of  an   object 

R 


242  THE  BREACH   WITH  ROME. 

admittedly  good.  It  was  a  question  of  confessing  or 
denying  the  truth — the  highest  and  höhest  truths,  as  he 
expressed  it,  relating  to  God  and  the  salvation  of  man.  In 
this  matter  his  conscience  was  bound. 

And  the  trial  thus  offered  for  his  endurance  was  not 
yet  over.  On  the  morning  of  the  19th,  the  Emperor  sent 
word  to  the  Estates,  that  he  would  now  send  Luther  back 
in  safety  to  Wittenberg,  but  treat  him  as  a  heretic.  The 
majority  insisted  on  attemj^ting  further  negotiations  with 
him  through  a  Committee  specially  appointed.  These  were 
conducted  accordingly  by  the  Elector  of  Treves,  to  whom 
Frederick  the  Wise  and  Miltitz  had  once  been  anxious  to 
submit  Luther's  affair.  The  friendliness,  and  the  visible 
interest  in  his  cause,  with  which  Luther  now  was  urged, 
was  more  calculated  to  move  him  than  Eck's  behaviour 
at  the  Diet.  He  himself  bore  witness  afterwards  how  the 
Archbishop  had  shown  himself  more  than  gracious  to  him, 
and  would  willingly  have  arranged  matters  peaceably.  In- 
stead of  being  urged  simply  to  retract  all  his  propositions 
condemned  by  the  Pope,  or  his  writings  directed  against 
the  Papacy,  he  was  referred  in  particular  to  those  articles  in 
which  he  rejected  the  decisions  of  the  Council  of  Constance. 
He  was  desired  to  submit  in  confidence  to  a  verdict  of  the 
Emperor  and  the  Empire,  when  his  books  should  be  sub- 
mitted to  judges  beyond  suspicion.  After  that  he  should  at 
least  accept  the  decision  of  a  future  Council,  unfettered  by 
any  acknowledgment  of  the  previous  sentence  of  the  Pope. 
So  freely  and  independently  of  the  Pope  did  this  Committee 
of  the  German  Diet,  mcluding  several  bishops  and  Duke 
George  of  Saxony,  proceed  in  negotiating  with  a  Papal 
heretic.  But  everything  was  shipwrecked  on  Luther's  firm 
reservation  that  the  decision  must  not  be  contrary  to  the 
Word  of  God ;  and  on  that  question  his  conscience  would 
not  allow  him  to  renounce  the  right  of  judging  for  himself. 
After  two  days'  negotiations,  he  thus,  on  April  25,  accord- 
ing to  Spalatin,  declared  himself  to  the  Archbishop  :  '  Most 


THE  DIET  OF  WORMS.  243 

gracious  Lord,  I  cannot  yield ;  it  must  happen  with  me  as 
God  wills ; '  and  continued  :  *  I  beg  of  your  Grace  that  you 
will  obtain  for  me  the .  gracious  permission  of  His  Imperial 
Majesty  that  I  may  go  home  again,  for  I  have  now  been 
here  for  ten  days  and  nothing  yet  has  been  effected.' 
Three  hours  later  the  Emperor  sent  word  to  Luther 
that  he  might  return  to  the  place  he  came  from,  and 
should  be  given  a  safe-conduct  for  twenty-one  days,  but 
would  not  be  allowed  to  preach  on  the  way. 

Free  residence,  however,  and  protection  at  Wittenberg,  in 
case  Luther  were  condemned  by  the  Empire,  was  more  than 
even  Frederick  the  Wise  would  be  able  to  assure  him.  But 
he  had  already  laid  his  plan  for  the  emergency.  Spalatin 
refers  to  it  in  these  words:  *Now  was  my  most  gracious 
Lord  somewhat  disheartened ;  he  was  certainly  fond  of  Dr. 
Martin,  and  was  also  most  unwilling  to  act  against  the 
Word  of  God,  or  to  bring  upon  himself  the  displeasure  of 
the  Emperor.  Accordingly,  he  devised  means  how  to  get 
Dr.  Martin  out  of  the  way  for  a  time,  until  matters  might 
be  quietly  settled,  and  caused  Luther  also  to  be  informed, 
the  evening  before  he  left  Worms,  of  his  scheme  for  getting 
him  out  of  the  way.  At  this  Dr.  Martin,  out  of  deference 
to  his  Elector,  was  submissively  dontent,  though,  certainly, 
then  and  at  all  times  he  would'  much  rather  have  gone 
courageously  to  the  attack.' 

The  very  next  morning,  Friday  the  26th,  Luther  de- 
parted. The  imperial  herald  went  behind  him,  so  as  not 
to  attract  notice.  They  took  the  usual  road  to  Eisenach. 
At  Friedberg  Luther  dismissed  the  herald,  giving  him 
a  letter  to  the  Emperor  and  the  Estates,  in  which  he 
defended  his  conduct  at  Worms,  and  his  refusal  to  trust  in 
the  decision  of  men,  by  saying  that  when  God's  Word  and 
things  eternal  were  at  stake,  one's  trust  and  dependence 
should  be  placed,  not  on  one  man  or  many  men,  but  on 
God  alone.  At  Her&feld,  where  Abbot  Crato,  in  spite  of  the 
ban,  received  him  with  all  marks  of  honour,  and  again  at 

b2 


244  THE  BREACH  WITH  ROME, 

Eisenach,  he  preached,  notwithstanding  the  Emperor's 
prohibition,  not  daring  to  let  the  Word  of  God  be  bound. 
From  Eisenach,  whilst  Swaven,  Schürf,  and  several  other 
of  his  companions  went  straight  on,  he  struck  southward, 
together  with  Amsdorf  and  Brother  Pezensteiner,  in  order 
to  go  and  see  his  relations  at  Möhra.  Here,  after  spending 
the  night  at  the  house  of  his  uncle  Heinz,  he  preached  the 
next  morning,  Saturday,  May  4.  Then,  accompanied  by 
some  of  his  relations,  he  took  the  road  through  Schweina, 
past  the  Castle  of  Altenstein,  and  then  across  the  back 
of  the  Thuringian  Forest  to  Waltershausen  and  Gotha. 
Towards  evening,  when  near  Altenstein,  he  bade  leave  of  his 
relations.  About  half  an  hour  farther  on,  at  a  spot  where 
the  road  enters  the  wooded  heights,  and  ascending  between 
hills  along  a  brook,  leads  to  an  old  chapel,  which  even  then 
was  in  ruins,  and  has  now  quite  disappeared,  armed  horse- 
men attacked  the  carriage,  orlflered  it  to  stop  with  threats 
and  curses,  pulled  Luther  out  of  it,  and  then  hurried  him 
away  at  full  speed.  Pezensteiner  had  run  aw^ay  as  soon  as 
he  saw  them  approach.  Amsdorf  and  the  coachman  were 
allowed  to  pass  on  ;  the  former  was  in  the  secret,  and 
pretended  to  be  terrified,  to  avoid  any  suspicion  on  the 
part  of  his  companion.  The  Wartburg  lay  to  the  north, 
about  eight  miles  distant,  and  had  been  the  starting-point 
of  the  horsemen,  as  it  now  was  their  goal ;  but  precaution 
made  them  ride  first  in  an  eastern  direction  with  Luther. 
The  coachman  afterwards  related  how  Luther  in  the  haste 
of  the  flight  dropped  a  grey  hat  he  had  worn.  And  now 
Luther  was  given  a  horse  to  ride.  The  night  was  dark, 
and  about  eleven  o'clock  they  arrived  at  the  stately  castle, 
situated  above  Eisenach.  Here  he  was  to  be  kept  as  a 
knight-prisoner.  The  secret  was  kept  as  strictly  as  possible 
towards  friend  and  foe.  For  many  weeks  afterwards  even 
Frederick's  brother  John  had  no  idea  of  it,  on  the  contrary, 
he  wrote  to  Frederick  that  Luther,  he  had  heard,  was 
residing  at  one  of  Sickingen's  castles.     Among  his  friends 


THE  DIET  OF  WORMS.  245 

and  followers  the  terrible  news  had  spread,  immediately 
upon  his  capture,  that  he  had  been  made  away  with  by  his 
enemies. 

At  Worms,  however,  while  the  Pope  was  concluding 
an  alliance  with  Charles  against  France,  the  Papal 
legate  Aleander,  by  commission  of  the  Emperor,  pre- 
pared the  edict  against  Luther  on  the  8th  of  May. 
It  was  not,  however,  until  the  25th,  after  Frederick,  the 
Elector  of  the  Palatinate,  and  a  great  part  of  the  other 
members  of  the  Diet  had  already  left,  that  it  was  deemed 
advisable  to  have  it  communicated  to  the  rest  of  the 
Estates  ;  nevertheless  it  was  antedated  the  8th,  and  issued 
*  by  the  unanimous  advice  of  the  Electors  and  Estates.* 
It  pronounced  upon  Luther,  applying  the  customary  strong 
expressions  of  Papal  bulls,  the  ban  and  re-ban;  no  one 
was  to  receive  him  any  longer,  or  feed  him  &c.,  but 
wherever  he  was  found,  he  was  to  be  seized  and  handed 
over  to  the  Emperor. 


PAßT  IV. 

FROM  THE  DIET  OF   WORMS  TO   THE  PEASANTS' 
WAR  AND  LUTHER'S  MARRIAGE. 


CHAPTEE   I. 

LUTHER   AT   THE   WARTBURG,    TO    HIS   VISIT   TO   WITTENBERG 

IN    1521. 

Luther,  after  being  brought  to  the  fortress,  had  to  Hve 
there  as  a  knight-prisoner.  He  was  called  Squire  George, 
he  grew  a  stately  beard,  and  doffed  his  monk's  cowl  for  the 
dress  of  a  knight,  with  a  sword  at  his  side.  The  governor 
of  the  castle,  Herr  von  Berlepsch,  entertained  him  with  all 
honour,  and  he  was  liberally  supplied  with  food  and  drink. 
He  was  free  to  go  about  as  he  pleased  in  the  apartments  of 
the  castle,  and  was  permitted,  in  the  company  of  a  trusty 
servant,  to  take  rides  and  walks  out  of  doors.  Thus,  as  he 
writes  to  a  friend,  he  sat  up  aloft,  in  the  region  of  the 
birds,  as  a  curious  prisoner,  nolens  volens,  whether  he  willed 
or  no ;  willing,  because  God  would  have  it  so,  not  willing, 
because  he  would  far  rather  have  stood  up  for  the  Word  of 
God  in  public,  but  of  such  an  honour  God  had  not  yet 
found  him  worthy. 

Care  was  also  taken  at  once  that  he  should  be  able  to 
correspond  at  least  by  letter  with  his  friends,  and  especially 
with  those  at  Wittenberg.  These  letters  were  sent  by 
messengers  of  the  Elector  through  the  hands  of  Spalatin. 
When  Luther  afterwards  heard  that  a  rumour  had  got  abroad 
as  to  his  place  of  residence,  he  sent  a  letter  to  Spalatin,  in 


LUTHER  AT  THE   WARTBURG. 


247 


which  he  said  :  *  A  report,  so  I  hear,  is  spread  that  Luther 
is  staying  at  the  Wartburg  near  Eisenach ;  the  people  sup- 


FiG.  26. — Luther  as  "  Squire  George."     (From  a  woodcut  by  Cranacli 


pose  this  to  be  the  case,  because  I  was  taken  prisoner  in  the 
wood  below ;  but  while  they  believe  that,  I  yit  here  safely 


248  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

hidden.  If  the  books  that  I  publish  betray  me,  then  1 
shall  change  my  abode;  it  is  very  strange  that  nobody 
thinks  of  Bohemia.'  This  letter,  so  Luther  thought.  Spa- 
latin  might  let  fall  into  the  hands  of  some  of  his  spying 
opponents,  so  as  to  lead  them  astray  in  their  conjecture. 
Spalatin  made  no  use  of  this^naive  attempt  at  trickery. 
He  could  hardly  have  done  much  in  the  matter,  and 
would  probably  have  directed  those  who  saw  through  the 
meaning  of  the  letter  straight  to  the  Wartburg.  He  suc- 
ceeded, however,  remarkably  well  in  keeping  the  spot  a 
secret,  even  after  it  was  generally  guessed  and  known 
that  Luther  was  to  be  found  somewhere  in  Saxony.  As 
late  as  1528,  Luther's  friend  Agricola  remarks  that  he 
had  hitherto  remained  concealed,  whilst  some  even  sought 
to  hear  of  him  by  questioning  of  the  devil ;  and  more  than 
twenty  years  later  Luther's  opponent  Cochlseus  declares 
that  he  was  hidden  at  Alstedt  in  Thurmgia. 

There  was  no  imperial  power  at  that  time  which  might 
have  deemed  it  necessary  or  expedient  to  track  out  the  man 
who  had  been  condemned  by  the  Edict  of  Worms.  The 
Emperor  had' left  Germany  agaua,  and  was  engaged  m  a 
war  with  France. 

In  his  quiet  solitude  Luther  threw  hunself  again  with- 
out delay  into  the  work  of  his  calling,  so  far  as  he  could 
here  perform  it.  This  was  the  study  of  Scripture  and  the 
active  exercise  of  his  own  pen  in  the  service  of  God's  Word. 
He  had  now  more  tune  than  before  to  investigate  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Bible  in  its  original  languages.  '  I  sit  here,'  he 
writes  to  Spalatin  ten  days  after  his  arrival,  '  the  whole 
day  at  leisure,  and  read  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  Bible.' 

His  sojourn  at  the  castle  began  in  the  festival  time 
between  Easter  and  Whitsuntide.  He  wrote  at  once  an 
exposition  of  the  sixty-eighth  Psalm,  with  particular  re- 
ference to  the  events  of  Ascension  and  Whitsuntide. 

For  the  Ulceration  of  the  laity  from  the  Papal  yoke, 
he  set  at  once  further  to  work  by  composing  a  treatise  '  On 


LUTHER  AT  THE   WARTBURG.  249 

Confession,  whether  the  Pope  has  power  to  order  it.'  He 
commends  confession,  when  a  man  humbles  himself  and 
receives  forgiveness  of  God  through  the  lips  of  a  Christian 
brother,  but  he  denounces  any  compulsion  in  the  matter, 
and  warns  men  against  priests  who  pervert  it  into  a  means 
of  increasing  their  own  power.  He  now  expressed  his 
public  thanks  to  Sickingen,  and  dedicated  the  book  to  him — 
'  To  the  just  and  firm  Francis  von  Sickingen,  my  especial 
lord  and  patron.'  In  this  dedication  he  repeats  the  fears 
he  had  long  expressed  of  the  judgment  that  the  clergy 
would  bring  upon  themselves  by  their  hatred  of  improvement 
and  their  obstinacy.  *  I  have,'  he  says,  *  often  offered  peace, 
I  have  offered  them  an  answer,  I  have  disputed,  but  all  has 
been  of  no  avail :  I  have  met  with  no  justice,  but  only  with 
vain  malice  and  violence,  nothing  more.  I  have  been 
simply  called  on  to  retract,  and  threatened  with  every  evil 
if  I  refused.'  Then  speaking  of  the  critical  moment  at 
which  he  was  obliged  to  withdraw,  '  I  can  do  no  m»re,'  he 
says,  *  I  am  now  out  of  the  game.  They  have  now  time  to 
change  that  which  cannot,  and  should  not,  and  will  not  be 
tolerated  from  them  any  longer.  If  they  refuse  to  make 
the  change,  another  will  make  it  for  them,  without  their 
thanks,  one  who  will  not  teach  like  Luther  with  letters  and 
w^ords,  but  with  deeds.  Thank  God,  tlie  fear  and  awe  of 
those  rogues  at  Kome  is  now  less  than  it  was.'  And  again, 
speaking  of  Koman  insolence  :  *  They  push  on  blindly  ahead 
— there  is  no  listening  or  reasoning.  Well,  I  have  seen 
more  water-bubbles  than  even  theirs,  and  once  such  an 
outrageous  smoke  that  it  managed  to  blot  out  the  sun,  but 
the  smoke  never  lasted,  and  the  sun  still  shines.  I  shall 
continue  to  keep  the  truth  bright  and  expose  it,  and  am  as 
far  from  fearing  my  ungracious  masters  as  they  are  ready 
to  despise  me.' 

Luther  now  finished  his- exposition  of  the  Magnificat^ 
which,  with  loving  devotion  to  the  subject,  he  had  intended 
for  Prince  John  Frederick.     He  resumed  also  his  work  on 


250  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

the  Sunday  Gospels  and  Epistles.  The  first  part  of  it  he 
had  already  published  in  Latin.  But  he  gave  it  now  a  new, 
and  for  the  Christian  people  of  Germany,  a  most  important 
character,  by  writing  in  German  his  comments  on  these 
passages  of  Scripture,  including  those  already  dealt  with  in 
Latin,  which  formed  the  text  of  the  sermon  for  the  day. 
Thus  arose  his  first  collection  of  sermons,  the  '  Church- 
Postills.'  By  November  he  had  already  sent  the  first  part 
to  the  press,  though  the  work  progressed  but  slowly.  In 
a  simple  exposition  of  the  words  of  the  Bible,  without  any 
artificial  and  rhetorical  additions  or  ornament,  but  with  a 
constant  and  cheerful  regard  to  practical  life,  with  an  un- 
ceasing attention  to  the  primary  questions  of  salvation,  and 
in  pithy,  clear,  and  thoroughly  popular  language,  he  began 
to  lay  before  his  readers  the  sum  total  of  Christian  truth, 
and  impress  it  on  their  hearts.  The  work  served  as  much 
for  the  instruction  and  support  of  other  preachers  of  the 
gospel  now  newly  proclaimed,  as  for  the  direct  teaching  and 
edifying  of  the  members  of  their  flocks.  It  advanced,  how- 
ever, only  by  degrees,  and  Luther  after  many  years  was 
obliged  to  have  it  finished  by  friends,  who  collected  together 
printed  or  written  copies  of  his  various  sermons. 

For  the  special  comfort  and  advice  of  his  Wittenberg 
congregation  Luther  wrote  an  exposition  of  the  thirty- seventh 
Psalm.  Nor  with  less  energy  and  force  did  he  wield  his 
pen  during  June,  in  a  vigorous  and  learned  polemical  reply 
in  Latin  to  the  Louvain  theologian,  Latomus. 

And  yet  Luther  all  this  while  continued  to  lament  that 
he  had  to  sit  there  so  idly  in  his  Patmos  :  he  would  rather  be 
burnt  in  the  service  of  God's  Word  than  stagnate  there  alone. 
The  bodily  rest  which  took  the  place  of  his  former  unwearied 
activity  in  the  pul^oit  and  the  lecturer's  chair,  together  wdth 
the  sumptuous  fare  now  substituted  for  the  simple  diet  of 
the  convent,  were  no  doubt  the  cause  of  the  physical  sufier- 
ing  which  for  a  long  time  had  grievously  distressed  him  and 
put  his  patience  to  the  test,  and  which  must  have  weighed 


LUTHER  AT  THE   WARTBURG.  251 

Upon  his  spirits.  In  his  distress  he  once  thought  of  going 
to  Erfurt  to  consult  physicians.  Some  strong  remedies, 
however,  which  Spalatm  got  for  him,  gave  him  temporary 
reHef. 

He  took  exercise  in  the  beautiful  woods  around  the 
castle,  and  there,  as  he  related  afterwards,  he  used  to  look 
for  strawberries.  In  August  he  had  news  to  give  Spalatin 
of  a  hunt,  at  wiiich  he  had  been  present  two  days.  He 
w^ished  to  look  on  at  *  this  bitter-sweet  pleasure  of  heroes.' 
'  We  have,'  he  says,  *  hunted  two-hares  and  a  few  poor  little 
partridges ;  truly  a  worthy  occupation  for  idle  people  ! '  But 
among  the  nets  and  hounds  he  managed,  as  he  says,  to 
pm'sue  theology.  He  saw  in  it  all  a  picture  of  the  devil,  who 
by  cunning  and  godless  doctrines  ensnares  poor  innocent 
creatures.  Graver  thoughts  still  were  suggested  to  his  mind 
by  the  fate  of  a  little  hare,  which  he  had  helped  to  save, 
and  had  rolled  up  in  the  long  sleeve  of  his  cloak,  but  which, 
on  his  jiutting  it  down  afterwards  and  going  away,  the 
dogs  caught  and  killed.  '  Thus,'  he  says,  '  do  the  Pope  and 
8atan  rage  together,  to  destroy,  despite  my  efforts,  souls 
already  saved.' 

At  that  time  too  he  fancied  he  heard  and  saw  all  kmds 
of  devil's  noises  and  sights,  which  long  afterwards  he 
frequently  described  to  his  friends,  but  which  he  took  at 
the  time  with  great  calmness.  Such,  for  instance,  were  a 
strange  continual  rumbling  in  a  chest  in  which  he  kept 
hazel  nuts,  nightly  noises  of  falling  on  the  stairs,  and  the 
unaccountable  appearance  of  a  black  dog  in  his  bed. 

Of  the  well-known  ink-stain  at  the.  Wartburg  we  hear 
nothing  either  from  those  or  after-times  ;  and  a  similar  spot 
was  shown  in  the  last  century  at  the  Castle  of  Coburg, 
where  Luther  stayed  in  1530. 

In  the  outer  world,  meanwhile,  the  great  movement  that 
emanated  from  Luther  continued  to  advance  and  grow,  in 
spite  of  his  disappearance.  It  was  apparent  how  powerless 
was  his  enforced  absence  to  suppress  it.     Soon  too  it  was  to 


252  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE, 

be  seen  how  much  on  the  other  hand  it  depended  on  him  that 
the  movement  should  not  bring  real  danger  and  destruc 
tion. 

At  Wittenberg  his  friends  continued  labouring  faithfully 
and  undisturbed.  Much  as  Melancthon  troubled  himself 
about  Luther  and  longed  for  his  return,  Luther  relied  with 
confidence  upon  him  and  his  efforts,  as  rendering  his  own 
presence  unnecessary.  With  joyful  congratulations  to 
his  friend  he  acknowledged  his  receipt  at  the  W^artburg 
of  the  sheets  of  his  work — the  Loci  Communes — wherein 
Melancthon,  whilst  intending  at  first  only  to  proclaim  the 
fundamental  principles  and  doctrmes  of  the  Bible,  and 
especially  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Komans,  actually  laid  the 
foundation  for  the  dogma  of  the  Evangelical  Church. 

Just  at  this  time  new  forces  had  stepped  in  to  further  the 
work  and  the  battle.  Shortly  before  Luther's  departure 
to  Worms,  John  Bugenhagen  of  Pomerania  had  appeared  at 
Wittenberg, — a  man  only  two  years  younger  than  Luther, 
well  tramed  m  theology  and  humanistic  learning,  and  already 
won  over  to  Luther's  doctrines  by  his  writings,  and  more 
especially  by  his  work  on  the  Babylonish  Captivity.  He 
had  made  friends  with  Luther  and  Melancthon,  and  soon 
began  to  teach  with  them  at  the  university.  John  Agricola 
from  Eisleben  had  already  taken  part  in  the  biblical 
lectures  at  the  university,  which  was  then  the  chief  place 
for  the  exposition  of  evangelical  doctrine.  This  man,  born 
in  1494,  had  lived  at  Wittenberg  since  1516.  He  had  from 
the  first  been  an  adherent  of  Luther,  and  had  wc:i  his 
confidence,  as  also  that  of  Melancthon.  He  was  now  their 
fellow-lecturer  at  the  university,  and  since  the  spring  of 
1521  had  been  appointed  by  the  town  as  catechist  at  the 
parish  church,  charged  with  the  duty  of  teaching  children 
religion.  Wittenberg  had  also  gained  the  services  of  the 
learned  Justus  Jonas,  so  conspicuous  for  his  high  culture, 
and  a  staunch  and  open  friend  of  Luther.  Shortly  after 
his  journey  with  Luther  from  Erfurt  to  the  Diet  of  Worms, 


LUTHER  AT  THE  WARTBURG.  253 

he  obtained,  by  grant  of  the  Elector,  the  office  of  provost  to 
the  church  of  All  Saints  at  Wittenberg,  and  became  a  member 
also  of  the  theological  faculty  at  the  university.  The  excom- 
munication under  which  Melancthon  had  fallen  with  Luther 
did  not  deter  the  mass  of  students  from  their  cause.  The 
academical  youth  who  had  assembled  here  from  the  whole 
of  Germany,  and  from  Switzerland,  Poland,  and  other 
countries,  were  renowned  for  the  exemplary  unity  in  which, 
unlike  their  brethren  in  most  of  the  universities  in  those 
days,  they  lived  together  and  devoted  themselves  to  the  purest 
and  most  elevating  studies.  Everywhere  students  might  be 
seen  with  Bibles  in  their  hands ;  the  young  nobles  and  sons 
of  burghers  applied  themselves  diligently  to  self-discipline ; 
and  the  drinking-bouts  practised  elsewhere,  and  so  destruc- 
tive to  the  muses,  were  unknown  among  them. 

Luther,  by  his  behaviour  at  Worms  in  particular,  had 
fastened  upon  himself  the  eyes  of  all  Germany.  The  pro- 
ceedings before  the  Diet,  made  known,  as  they  would  be 
nowadays,  by  the  newspapers,  were  then  published  abroad 
by  means  of  fugitive  pamphlets  of  .a  longer  or  shorter  kind. 
Luther's  speech  in  particular  was  circulated  from  notes  made 
pa-rtly  by  himself,  partly  by  others.  Day  after  day,  and 
especially  during  the  sittings  of  the  Diet,  a  number  of  other 
short  tracts  and  fly-sheets  set  forth,  mainly  in  the  form  of  a 
dialogue,  a  popular  discussion  and  explanation  of  his  cause. 
His  fate  at  Worms  was  immediately  proclaimed  in  a  book 
called  '  The  Passion  of  Dr.  Martin  Luther,'  the  title  of  which 
sufficiently  indicated  the  analogy  suggested.  Then  came 
the  stirring  and  disquieting  news  of  his  sudden  kidnapping 
by  the  powers  of  darkness ;  rumours  which  only  served  to 
stimulate  him  further  in  his  concealment  to  speak  out  and 
march  forwards  with  undaunted  courage  and  assurance. 

As  writers  who  now  began  to  labour  for  the  cause  in  a 
similar  spirit  to  Luther's  and  in  a  similarly  popular  style 
and  manner,  we  must  not  omit  to  name  the  following.  First 
and  foremost  was  Eberlin  of  Giinzburg,  formerly  a  Fran- 


254  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

ciscan   at  Tübingen;   next,   the  Augustine  monk  Michael 
Stifel  of  EssHngen,  who  came  himself  to  Wittenberg  and 
joined  there  the  circle  of  friends  ;  and  lastly,  the  Franciscan 
Henry  von  Kettenbach  at  Ulm.     The  authors  of  some  other 
influential  works,  such  as  the  dialogue  '  Neu  Karsthans ' 
(Karsthans  being  a  name  for  peasants),  are  not  known  with 
certainty.      In  these  men  and   their  writings,    ideas  and 
thoughts  already  made  their  appearance,  going  beyond  the 
intentions  of  Luther,  and  into  a  territory  which,  from  his 
standpoint   of   religion,  he  would  rather  have  seen  more 
exactly  defined,  and  taking  up  weapons  which  he  had  rejected. 
Thus  '  Karsthans  '  contains  the  advice  to  break  off,  after  the 
example  of  the  Hussites  in   Bohemia,  from  most  of  the 
Churches,  as  being  tainted  with  avarice  and  superstition ; 
and  a  rising  against  the  clergy  is  contemplated,  in  which 
the  nobles  and  peasants  should  combine.    Eberlin,  with  his 
extraordinary  energy,  not  content  with  the  most  compre- 
hensive and  far-reaching  schemes  of  ecclesiastical  reform, 
plunged  into  questions  affecting  the  wants  of  municipal, 
social,  and  political  life,  which  Luther,  in  his  Address  to  the 
German  Nobility,  had  only  briefly  alluded  to,  and  had  care- 
fully distinguished  from  his  own  particular  work  in  hand. 
To  the  dealings  of  the  great  merchants  he  showed  himself 
more  hostile  even  than  Luther ;  and  put  forward  such  pro- 
posals  as   the  establishment  by  the  civil  authorities  of  a 
cheaper  tariff  of  prices  for  provisions,  the  appointment  to 
magisterial  offices  by  election,  for  which  peasants  also  should 
be  qualified,  and  free  rights  of  hunting  and  fishing. 

The  Edict  of  Worms,  intended  to  proscribe  and  suppress 
throughout  Germany  the  heretic  and  his  writings,  was 
pubhshed  in  the  different  states  and  towns  by  the  princes 
and  magistrates ;  but  the  power,  and  partly  also  the  will, 
was  wanting  to  enforce  its  execution.  At  Erfurt,  shortly 
after  Luther's  passage  through  the  town  upon  his  way  to 
Worms,  the  interference  of  the  clergy  against  a  member  of 
a  religious  institution  which  had  taken  part  in  the  ovation 


LUTHER  AT  THE  WARTBURG.  255 

accorded  to  the  Eeformer,  gave  the  first  occasion  to  violent 
and  repeated  tumults.  Students  and  townspeople  attacked 
upwards  of  sixty  houses  of  the  priests,  and  demolished 
them.  Luther  told  his  friends  at  once,  that  he  saw  in 
this  the  work  of  Satan,  who  sought  by  this  means  to  bring 
contempt  and  legitimate  reproach  upon  the  gospel. 

Elsewhere,  and  above  all  at  Wittenberg,  his  followers 
busied  themselves  in  his  absence  with  putting  into  practice 
what  he  had  defended  with  his  words.  Calmly  and  with 
mature  deliberation  and  courage,  Luther  took  part  in  their 
labours  from  the  solitude  of  his  watch-tower.  He  had  a 
very  lively  and,  as  he  himself  confesses,  often  painful 
consciousness  of  his  own  responsibility,  as  the  one  who  had 
put  the  first  match  to  the  great  fire,  and  whose  first  duties 
lay  with  his  Wittenberg  brethren,  as  their  teacher  and 
pastor. 

Shortly  after  his  arrival  at  the  Wartburg,  he  received 
the  news  that  Bartholomew  Bernhardi  of  Feldkirchen,  pro- 
vost in  the  little  town  of  Kemberg  near  Wittenberg,  had 
publicly,  and  with  the  consent  of  his  congregation,  taken  a 
wife.  He  was  not  the  first  priest  who  had  ventured  to 
break  the  unchristian  prohibition  of  marriage  by  the  Eomisli 
Church.  But  he  was  the  most  distinguished  of  such 
offenders  hitherto,  besides  being  a  particular  disciple  of 
Luther  and  a  man  of  unimpeachable  integrity.  Luther 
wrote  about  it  to  Melancthon,  saying :  '  I  admire  the  newly 
married  man,  who  in  these  stormy  times  has  no  fears,  and 
has  lost  no  time  about  it.     May  God  guide  him.' 

At  Wittenberg  it  was  now  demanded,  not  without 
violence,  that  monasticism  should  be  abolished,  and  that 
the  mass  and  the  Lord's  Supper  should  be  changed  in 
conformity  with  the  institution  of  Christ.  It  seemed  as  if 
here,  in  the  place  of  Luther,  who  had  gone  before  with  the 
simple  testimony  of  the  Word  and  doctrine,  two  other  men 
were  now  to  step  in  as  practical  and  energetic  Reformers. 
One  of  them  was  Luther's  old  colleague,  Carlstadt,  who  had 


256  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

returned  in  July  from  a  short  visit  to  Copenhagen,  whithei 
the  King  of  Denmark  had  invited  him  to  promote  the  new 
evangehcal  theology  at  the  university,  but  had  soon  again 
dismissed  him,  and  who  now  assumed  the  lead  at  Witten- 
berg with  a  passionate  and  ambitious,  but  undeterminate 
zeal.  The  other  was  the  Augustine  monk,  Gabriel  Zwilling, 
who  had  introduced  himself  to  notice  as  a  fiery  preacher 
in  the  convent  church,  and  in  spite  of  his  unattractive 
appearance  and  weak  voice  had  drawn  together  a  large 
congregation  from  the  town  and  university,  and  fascinated 
them  with  his  eloquence.  A  young  Silesian  wrote  home 
from  the  university  of  Wittenberg  about  him,  saying  :  '  God 
has  raised  up  for  us  another  prophet ;  many  call  him  a 
second  Luther.  Melancthon  is  never  absent  when  he 
preaches.' 

For  the  clergy  Carlstadt  sought,  by  a  perverse  interpre- 
tation of  Scripture,  to  make  the  married  state  into  a  law. 
Only  married  men  were  to  be  appointed  to  offices  in  the 
Church.  For  monks  and  nuns  he  claimed  the  liberty  of 
renouncing  their  cloistered  and  celibate  life,  if  they  found  its 
moral  requirements  insupportable ;  but  the  biblical  evidence 
that  he  adduced  in  support  of  this  doctrine  was  unhappily 
ehosen  ;  and  he  still  declared  the  renunciation  of  vows  to  be 
a  sin,  though  justified  by  the  avoidance  thereby  of  a  still 
greater  sin,  that  of  unchastity  in  monastic  life.  Luther  had 
required  that  at  the  Lord's  Supper  the  cup,  in  accordance 
with  the  original  institution  of  Christ,  should  be  given  to  the 
laity.  Carlstadt  and  Zwilling,  however,  wished  to  make  it  a 
sin  for  a  person  to  partake  of  the  Communion  without  the  cup 
being  given  to  the  communicants.  Other  changes  also  were 
now  demanded  in  the  mode  of  administering  the  elements, 
conformably  with  the  Holy  Supper  held  by  Jesus  Himself 
with  His  twelve  disciples.  Zwilling  would  have  twelve 
communicants  at  a  time  partake  of  the  bread  and  wine.  It 
was  further  insisted  that,  like  as  at  ordinary  meals,  the 
elements  should  be  given  into  the  hand  of  each  individual 


LUTHER  AT   THE   WARTBURG.  257 

to  partake  of,  and  not  put  into  his  mouth  })y  the  priest. 
The  sacrifice  of  the  mass  Zwilhng  would  aboHsh  altogether, 
but  Carlstadt  thought  it  necessary,  in  dealing  ^Yith  so  impor- 
tant a  feature  of  the  old  form  of  worship,  to  proceed  with 
caution. 

Upon  these  questions  and  proceedings  Luther  expressed 
his  opinion  early  in  August  to  Melancthon,  who  was  keenly 
excited  about  them,  but  on  many  points  was  unsettled  in 
his  mind.  The  project  of  restoring  at  Wittenberg  the 
celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  as  originally  instituted, 
with  the  cup,  met  with  Luther's  full  approval;  for  the 
tyranny  which  the  Christian  congregations  had  hitherto 
endured  in  this  respect  had  been  acknowledged  there,  and 
there  was  a  general  wish  to  resist  it.  He  declared  further, 
with  regard  to  private  masses,  that  he  was  resolved 
never  to  say  any  more  while  he  lived.  But  compulsion 
he  would  not  dream  of:  if  any  who  still  suffered  from 
this  tyranny  partook  of  the  Communion  without  the  cup, 
no  man  durst  account  it  to  him  as  a  sin.  As  for  the 
troubles  of  the  monks  and  nuns,  under  their  self-imposed 
vows,  his  sympathy  for  them  was  no  less  acute  than  that  of 
his  friends  at  Wittenberg,  but  the  arguments  by  which  they 
sought  to  help  them  to  liberty  he  did  not  consider  sound. 
He  gave  now  this  subject  a  more  searching  and  deeper 
consideration,  and  shortly  addressed  a  series  of  theses 
on  celibacy  to  the  bishops  and  deacons  of  the  church  at 
Wittenberg.  He  attacked  vows  in  general,  and  assailed 
them  at  the  very  root.  Inasmuch,  moreover,  as  the  vows 
of  chastity,  he  said,  and  of  other  monastic  observances  were 
commonly  made  to  God  with  the  intent  and  purpose  of 
w^orking  out  one's  own  salvation  by  one's  own  works  and 
righteousness,  these  were  not  vows  in  accordance  with  the 
will  of  God,  but  denials  of  the  faith.  And  even  though  a 
man  should  have  made  a  vow  in  a  spirit  of  piety,  he  placed 
himself  at  all  events,  by  his  own  will  and  act,  under  a  re- 
straint and  yoke  at  variance  with  the  gospel  and  the  liberty 


258  EXILE,  RETURN,   AND  MARRIAGE. 

which  faith  in  Christ  bestows.  Luther  went  still  farther, 
and  declared  that  the  chastity  enjoined  upon  the  monk 
was  only  possible  if  he  possessed  the  special  gift  of  con- 
tinence spoken  of  by  St.  Paul.  How  dare  a  man  make  a 
vow  to  God,  which  God  must  first  endue  him  with  the 
power  to  keep  ?  A  man,  therefore,  in  vowing  chastity, 
makes  a  vow  which  it  is  not  really  possible  for  him  to  keep, 
whilst  true  chastity  is  made  possible  for  him  by  God  in  the 
married  life  which  he  condemns.  These  vows,  accordingly, 
are  radically  vicious  and  displeasing  to  God,  and  cease  to 
be  binding  on  a  Christian  who  has  been  made  free  in  faith, 
and  has  recognised  the  true  will  of  God. 

Personally  concerned  as  Luther  was,  as  an  Augustine 
monk  himself,  in  these  questions  which  he  discussed,  he 
treated  the  liberty,  which  inwardly  he  knew  himself  to 
possess,  as  quietly  and  coolly  as  possible.  On  receiving  the 
news  from  Wittenberg,  he  wrote  to  Spalatin,  *  Good  Hea^'en! 
our  "Wittenbergers  will  allow  even  the  monks  to  have 
wives,  but  they  shall  not  force  me  to  take  one.'  And  he 
asks  Melancthon  jokingly,  if  he  was  going  to  revenge  him- 
self upon  him  for  having  helped  him  to  get  a  wife ;  he 
would  know  well  enough  how  to  guard  against  that. 

At  Wittenberg  there  was  great  excitement,  particularly 
on  account  of  the  mass.  In  the  Augustinian  convent 
there,  the  majority  of  the  monks  held  with  Zwilling ;  they 
wished  to  celebrate  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
in  strict  accordance  with  the  institution  of  Christ.  Their 
prior,  Conrad  Held,  took  the  opposite  side,  and  adhered  to 
the  ancient  usage.  Justus  Jonas,  the  provost,  expressed  his 
views  with  equal  ardour  in  the  convent  church  attached 
to  the  university,  and  met  with  violent  opposition  from 
other  members  of  the  foundation.  A  committee,  composed 
of  deputies  from  the  university  and  chapter  of  canons,  from 
whom  the  Elector  in  October  demanded  a  formal  opinion  on 
the  subject,  expressed  by  their  majority  the  same  view,  and 
requested  the  Elector  himself  to  abolish  the  abuse  of  the 


LUTHER  AT   THE  WARTBURG.  259 

mass.  But  Frederick  utterly  rejected  the  idea  of  decreeing 
on  his  own  authority  innovations  which  would  constitute  a 
deviation  from  the  great  Christian  Catholic  Church,  more 
especially  as  opinions  were  not  agreed  on  them  even  at 
Wittenberg.  He  would  do  no  more  than  give  free  scope 
and  protection  to  the  new  testimony  of  biblical  truth,  until 
it  should  be  properly  sifted  by  the  Church.  In  the  church 
of  the  Augustinian  convent,  the  mass  and  the  Lord's 
Supper  were  now  both  suspended. 

Men  set  to  work  now  in  earnest  to  give  effect  to  the 
new  principles  applied  to  monachism.  Thirteen  Augustine 
monks,  about  a  third  of  the  then  inmates  of  the  convent 
at  Wittenberg,  quitted  that  convent  early  in  November, 
and  cast  away  their  cowls.  Some  of  them  took  up  at 
once  a  civil  trade  or  handicraft.  This  step  increased 
the  growing  feeling  of  hostility  to  the  monks  among  the 
students  and  inhabitants  of  the  town.  All  kinds  of 
enormities  ensued :  monks  were  mocked  at  in  the  streets  ; 
the  convents  were  threatened ;  and  even  the  service  of  the 
mass  was  disturbed  by  rioters  who  forced  their  way  into  the 
parish  church. 

Meanwhile  Luther  went  on,  in  the  quietness  of  his 
seclusion,  to  teach  the  Christian  truth  about  vows  and 
masses,  to  explain  and  establish  his  newly-acquired  know- 
ledge and  convictions,  and  to  prepare  by  that  means  the 
w^ay  of  ultimate  reform.  He  composed  a  tract,  in  Latin 
and  German,  '  On  the  Abuse  of  Masses,'  and  another,  in 
Latin,  '  On  Monastic  Yows.'  The  latter  he  .dedicated  to  his 
father,  taking  note  of  his  protest  against  his  entering  the 
convent,  and  telling  him  with  joy  that  he  was  now  a  free 
man,  a  monk,  and  yet  no  longer  a  monk.  As  for  his 
brethren's  desertion  of  the  convent,  however,  he  dis- 
approved the  manner  of  it.  They  could,  and  should,  have 
parted  in  peace  and  amity,  not  as  they  did,  in  a  tumult. 
These  two  works  he  completed  in  November,  and  sent 
them  to  Spalatin,  to  have  them  printed  at  Wittenberg. 


26o  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

In  this  manner  Luther  occupied  himself  from  the  summer 
to  the  winter,  continuing  all  the  while  his  biblical  studies 
and  the  composition  of  his  Church-Postihs.  But  he  was 
also  preparing  to  deal  a  heavy  blow  at  the  Cardinal  Albert. 
This  prelate  had  abstained  as  yet,  with  great  caution,  from 
taking  any  stringent  measures  to  prevent  the  spread  of 
Lutheran  preaching  in  his  diocese.  But  he  was  in  want 
of  money.  To  supply  this  want,  he  published  a  work, 
giving  news  of  a  precious  relic,  w4iich  he  had  placed  for 
view  at  Halle,  his  town,  and  inviting  pilgrimages  to  see  it. 
A  multitude  of  other  rich  and  wondrous  relics  had  been 
collected  there  ;  not  only  heaps  of  bones  and  entire  corpses 
of  saints,  with  a  portion  of  the  body  of  the  patriarch 
Isaac,  but  also  pieces  of  the  manna,  as  it  had  fallen  from 
heaven  in  the  desert,  little  bits  of  the  burning  bush  of 
Moses,  jars  from  the  wedding  at  Cana,  and  some  of  the  wine 
into  which  Jesus  there  had  changed  the  water,  thorns  from 
the  Saviour's  crown,  one  of  the  stones  with  which  Stephen 
was  stoned,  and  a  multitude  of  other,  in  all  nearly  9,000, 
relics.  Whoever  should  attend  with  devotion  at  the  exhibi- 
tion of  these  sacred  treasures  in  the  Collegiate  Church  at 
Halle,  and  should  give  a  pious  alms  to  the  institution,  was 
to  receive  a  *  surpassing  '  indulgence.  The  first  exhibition 
of  this  kind  took  place  about  the  beginning  of  September. 
Albert  also  had  not  scrupled  to  cause  one  of  the  priests 
wdio  wished  to  marry  to  be  imprisoned,  though  it  w^as 
notorious  how  he  himself  made  up  for  his  celibacy  by  his 
loose  living. 

Luther  now,  as  he  wrote  to  Spalaiin  on  October  7,  1521, 
could  not  restrain  himself  any  longer  from  breaking  out, 
in  private  and  in  public,  against  his  '  Idol  of  indulgences ' 
and  his  scandalous  whoredoms.  He  took  no  thought  of  the 
fact  that  his  own  pious  Elector,  only  a  few  years  before,  had 
arranged  a  similar,  though  less  showy  exhibition  of  relics  at 
the  convent  church  at  Wittenberg,  and  was  thus  indirectly 
assailed  by  reproaches  now  no  longer  deserved.   By  the  end 


LUTHER  AT  THE   WARTBURG.  261 

of  the  month  Luther  had  a  pamphlet  ready  for  pubHcation. 
But  an  attack  of  such  a  kind  on  a  magnate  Hke  Albert, 
the  great  prince  of  the  Empire,  Elector  of  Mayence,  and 
brother  of  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  was  not  to  Frede- 
rick's taste,  and  he  informed  Luther,  through  Spalatin, 
that  he  forbade  it.  He  would  not  sanction  anything,  he 
said,  which  might  disturb  the  public  peace.  Luther  told 
Spalatin,  in  his  reply,  that  he  had  never  read  a  more  dis- 
agreeable letter  than  Frederick's.  *  I  will  not  put  up  with 
it,'  he  indignantly  broke  out ;  '  I  will  rather  lose  you  and  the 
prince  himself,  and  every  living  being.  If  I  have  stood  up 
against  the  Pope,  w4iy  should  I  yield  to  his  creature  ? '  He 
wished  only  to  show  his  pamphlet  first  to  Melancthon,  and 
submit  a  few  alterations  in  it  to  the  judgment  of  his  friend. 
For  this  purpose  he  sent  it  to  Spalatin,  requesting  him  to 
forward  it.  Then,  on  December  1,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Albert 
himself.  Its  tone  and  contents  indicate  pretty  plainly  what 
the  pamphlet  itself  contained.  In  clear  vigorous  German, 
and  without  any  circumlocution,  he  submits  to  the  Cardinal 
his  '  humble  request,'  to  abstain  from  corrupting  the  poor 
people,  and  not  to  show  himself  a  w^olf  in  bishop's  clothing. 
He  must  surely  know  by  this  time  that  indulgences  were 
sheer  knavery  and  trickery.  He  was  not  to  imagine  that 
Luther  was  dead :  Luther  w^ould  trust  cheerfully  in  God, 
and  carry  on  a  game  with  the  Cardinal  of  Mayence,  of  which 
not  many  people  were  yet  aware.  As  for  the  priests  who 
had  wished  to  marry,  he  warned  the  Archbishop  that  a 
cry  would  be  raised  from  the  gospel  about  it ;  and  the 
bishops  would  learn  that  they  had  better  first  pluck  out  the 
beam  from  their  own  eyes,  and  drive  their  own  mistresses 
away.  Luther  concluded  by  giving  him  fourteen  days  for  a 
*  proper '  answer;  otherwise,  wdien  that  time  expired,  he  would 
immediately  publish  his  pamphlet  on  '  The  Idol  at  Halle.' 

All  this  while,  the  news  from  Wittenberg  kept  Luther  in 
a  state  of  constant  anxiety.  The  distance  and  the  difficulty 
of  correspondence   had   become    quite    insupportable.     A 


262  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

few  days  after  his  letter  of  December  1,  he  suddenly 
re-appeared  there  amon^  his  friends.  In  secret,  and  accom- 
panied only  by  a  servant,  he  had  gone  thither  on  horseback 
in  his  knight's  dress.  He  stayed  there  for  three  days  with 
Amsdorf.  Only  his  most  intimate  friends  were  allowed  to 
know  of  his  arrival.  His  meeting  with  them  again  gave 
him,  as  he  wrote  to  Spalatin,  the  keenest  pleasure  and  en- 
joyment. But  it  was  a  bitter  sorrow  to  hear  that  SpaJatin 
would  not  look  at,  or  listen  to,  his  pamphlet  against  Albert, 
nor  his  tracts  on  masses  and  monastic  vows,  but  had  kept 
them  back.  Wiat  his  friends  now  told  him  of  their  efforts 
and  labours  he  approved  of,  and  he  wished  them  strength 
from  above  to  persevere.  But  he  had  heard  already,  when 
on  his  way,  of  fresh  outrages  committed  by  some  of  the 
townspeople  and  students  against  the  priests  and  monks, 
and  henceforth  he  deemed  it  his  nearest  duty  to  warn  them 
publicly  against  such  acts  of  violence  and  disorder. 


263 


CHAPTEK  II. 

Luther's  further  sojourn  at  the  wartburg,  and  his 
return  to  wittenberg,  1522. 

In  secret,  as  he  had  first  gone  there,  Luther  returned  to  the 
Wartburg,  and  now  set  to  work  with  his  '  True  Admonition 
for  all  Christians  to  abstain  from  turbulence  and  rebellion.' 
He  had  before  his  eyes  the  danger  of  an  insurrection, 
involving  the  lives  of  all  the  priests  and  monks  who  opposed 
reform,  and  one  in  which  the  common  people,  in  revenge  I 
for  their  many  grievances,  might  fall  to  laying  about  them 
with  clubs  and  flails,  as  the  '  Karsthans '  threatened.  To 
the  princes,  magistrates,  and  nobles,  he  had  already 
addressed  a  demand  to  put  a  stop  to  the  corruption  of 
the  Church  and  the  tyranny  of  the  Pope.  Of  the  civil 
authorities  and  the  nobility,  he  says  now  that  '  they  ought 
to  do  this,  in  duty  to  their  ordinary  position  and  power, 
every  prince  and  lord  on  his  own  territory ;  for  what  is 
brought  about  by  the  exercise  of  ordinary  power  is  not  to 
be  accounted  turbulence.'  At  the  same  time,  to  the  masses 
and  to  individuals  he  plainly  prohibits  a  rising  by  force. 
Turbulence  was  the  usurpation  of  justice,  and  revenge, 
which  God  would  not  suffer,  for  He  said, '  Kevenge  is  Mine.' 
All  turbulence,  he  said,  was  wrong,  however  good  might  be 
the  cause,  9,nd  only  made  bad  worse.  As  for  the  magistrates, 
he  would  not  have  them  kill  the  priests,  as  once  Moses  and 
Elias  had  done  to  the  worshippers  of  idols ;  they  were 
simply  to  forbid  them  from  acting  contrary  to  the  gospel. 
Words  would  do  more  than  was  enough  with  them,  so  there 
was  no  need  of  hewing  and  stabbing.     We  have  seen  how 


264  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

yempliatically  Luther  expressed  himself  to  the  same  effect 
fbefore  he  went  to  Worms.  The  Apostle's  words  that  the 
/  Lord  should  consume  the  Antichrist  with  the  Spirit  of  His 
Mouth,  were  to  be  fulfilled,  according  to  Luther,  in  the 
words  of  gospel  preaching.  It  was  his  own  previous 
experience  that  had  taught  him  to  rely  with  such  lofty 
\  confidence  on  the  simple  Word ;  he  had  done  more  injury 
with  it  alone  to  the  Pope,  and  the  priests  and  monks,  than 
all  the  emperors  and  princes  had  ever  done  with  all  their 
power.  He  still  looked  forward  steadfastly  to  the  approach 
of  the  Last  Day,  when  Christ  by  His  coming  should  utterly 
destroy  the  Pope,  whose  iniquity  the  Word  had  exposed. 
As  he  had  done  formerly  in  his  treatise  on  Christian 
liberty,  and  had  now  good  reason  to  do  with  the  Witten- 
bergers, he  exhorts  men  to  a  loving  and  merciful  regard  to 
!f;heir  weaker  brethren,  whose  consciences  were  still  ensnared 
by  the  old  ordinances  respecting  fasting  and  masses.  They 
ought  not  to  be  taken  unawares,  but  instructed  kindly 
and,  if  unable  to  agree  at  once,  dealt  with  patiently.  *  The 
wolves,'  he  says,  *  cannot  be  treated  too  severely,  nor  the 
tender  sheep  too  gently.' 

Luther's  works  on  the  mass  and  monastic  vows  were 
now  actually  in  print.  Cardinal  Albert,  however,  gave  the 
answer  demanded  by  Luther,  in  a  short  letter  of  December 
21.  He  assured  him  that  the  subject  of  his  complaint  had 
been  removed ;  that  as  to  himself,  he  did  not  deny  that  he 
was  a  miserable  sinner,  the  very  filth  of  the  earth,  as  bad  as 
anyone.  Christian  chastisement  he  could  well  endure  ;  he 
looked  to  God  for  grace  and  strength,  to  live  according  to 
His  will.  So  abjectly  did  this  magnate  quail  before  the 
Word,  with  which  Luther  threatened  to  expose  his  doings. 
He  must  no  doubt  have  been  ashamed  of  his  traffic  in 
indulgences  before  all  his  Humanist  friends^  and  especially 
Erasmus;  and  must  have  expected  that  the  other  scandals 
with  which  Luther  charged  him  would  be  laid  bare  without 
mercy  or  regard.     At  the  same  time  we  see  in  all  this,  how 


LUTHER  AT   THE  WARTBURG.  265 

perfectly  free  from  reproach  in  this  matter  of  morality  must 
Luther  have  been,  not  only  in  his  own  conscience,  but  also 
in  the  eyes  of  Albert.  Luther,  on  receiving  this  letter, 
doubted  indeed  the  sincerity  of  its  professions,  and  even 
abstained  from  acknowledging  it.  But  he  now  finally 
abandoned,  nevertheless,  the  publication  of  the  pamphlet, 
intended  to  expose  him,  which  had  hitherto  been  hindered 
by  the  Elector. 

But  the  most  important  task  that  Luther  now  undertook, 
and  in  which  he  persevered  with  steadfast  devotion  during 
his  further  stay  at  the  Wartburg,  was  one  of  a  peaceful 
character,  the  most  beautiful  fruit  of  his  seclusion,  the 
noblest  gift  that  he  has  bequeathed  to  his  countrymen. 
This  was  his  translation  of  the  Bible— first  of  the  New 
Testament.  *  Our  brethren  demand  it  of  me,'  he  wrote  to 
liange  shortly  after  his  return  from  Wittenberg.  And  in 
these  words  the  wish  was  evidently  expressed,  or  else  laid 
to  heart  anew.  The  Bible,  it  is  true,  had  been  translated 
into  German  before  Luther's  time,  but  in  a  clumsy  idiom 
that  sounded  foreign  to  the  people,  and  not,  like  Luther's 
version,  from  the  original  text,  but  from  the  Latin  translation 
used  in  the  churches.  Luther  declared  that  no  one  could 
speak  German  of  this  outlandish  kind,  *  but,'  he  said,  *  one 
has  to  ask  the  mother  in  her  home,  the  children  m  the  street, 
the  common  man  in  the  market-place,  and  look  at  their 
mouths  to  see  how  they  speak,  and  thence  interpret  it  to  one- 
self, and  so  make  them  understand.  I  have  often  laboured 
to  do  this,  but  have  not  always  succeeded  or  hit  the 
meaning.'  None  the  less  strictly  and  faithfully  did  he  seek 
to  adhere  to  the  spirit  of  the  text,  and,  where  necessary, 
even  to  the  letter.  Such  an  interpretation,  he  said,  re- 
quired a  '  truly  devout,  faithful,  diligent,  fearful,  Christian, 
learned,  experienced,  and  practised  heart.'  Penetrated  him- 
self with  the  substance  and  spirit  of  the  Scriptures,  he  under- 
stood how  to  combine  in  his  language,  as  if  by  intuition, 
a  dignified  tone  and  a  national  character.     So  hard  did  he 


266  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

work,  that  he  finished  the  New  Testament  at  the  Wartburg 
in  a  few  months ;  he  then  wished  to  revise  it  with  the  help 
of  Melancthon. 

Meanwhile,  affairs  at  Wittenberg  were  assuming  so 
serious  an  aspect  as  to  make  Luther's  apprehensions 
increase  from  day  to  day.  The  question  of  monastic  vows 
indeed  was  settled  peaceably,  and  in  a  manner  such  as 
Luther  would  have  desired,  by  some  resolutions  (so  far  as 
resolutions  could  settle  it),  passed  by  the  Augustinian 
brethren  at  a  chapter  held  at  Wittenberg  by  Link,  the 
Vicar  of  the  Order.  It  was  there  resolved  that  free  permis- 
sion should  be  given  to  leave  the  convent,  but  that  those 
who  preferred  to  adhere  to  the  monastic  life  should  remain 
there  in  voluntary  but  strict  subordination  to  their  superiors 
and  to  the  estabHshed  rules;  some  of  them  should  be 
employed  in  preaching  the  Word  of  God,  others  should  con- 
tribute by  manual  labour  to  the  support  of  the  institution. 
Outside,  however,  among  the  people  of  Wittenberg,  Carlstadt, 
who  had  shortly  before  restrained  even  his  own  partisans 
in  regard  to  the  question  of  the  mass,  and  who  was  neither 
a  regular  preacher  in  the  town  nor  in  the  possession  of  any 
other  ofQce,  now  pressed  forward,  by  his  sermons  and 
writings,  impetuously  in  the  van,  and  made  hasty  strides 
towards  the  furtherance  of  his  misty  projects  of  reform. 
Anticipating  a  prohibition  from  the  Elector,  he  celebrated 
the  Lord's  Supper  at  Christmas  in  the  new  manner.  Even 
the  usual  vestments  were  discarded  as  idolatrous  :  Zwilling 
performed  the  service  in  a  student's  gown.  The  people 
w^ere  enjoined  to  eat  meat  and  eggs  on  fast  days;  and 
confession  was  no  longer  held  before  the  Communion. 
Carlstadt  went  further,  and  denounced  the  pictures  and 
images  in  the  churches ;  it  was  not  enough  to  desist  from 
worshipping  them,  nor  durst  it  be  hinted  that  they  served 
as  books  for  the  instruction  of  laymen.  God  had  plainly 
forbidden  them ;  their  proper  place  was  in  the  fire  and  not 
in  God's  house.     "Wliilst  the  town-council,  at  his  instance, 


LUTHER  AT  THE    WARTBURG.  267 

resolved  to  have  the  images  removed  from  the  parish 
chm-ch,  some  of  the  populace  stormed  in,  tore  them  down, 
hewed  them  to  pieces,  and  hmiied  them. 

Luther  himself,  even  with  regard  to  rites  and  ordinances 
which  he  rejected  altogether,  always  counselled  moderation 
and  patience  towards  the  weak.  He  could  not  helieve  that 
the  great  hody  of  his  Wittenberg  congregation  were  already 
ripe  for  such  changes,  or  that  many  conscientious  but  weaker 
brethren  among  them  w^ere  not  in  need  of  tender  considera- 
tion. People  might  say  that  it  was  only  a  question  of  time ; 
well,  he  did  not  wish  to  delay  genuine  reform  for  ever, 
merely  to  humour  the  minority.  But  it  was  precisely  that 
those  members  should  have  proper  time  allowed  them,  and 
every  means  taken  for  tlieir  instruction  and  edification,  that 
was  to  Luther  a  matter  of  conscience.  External  matters, 
of  wdiich  the  other  Reformers  made  so  much,  such  as  eating 
on  fast  days,  the  taking  with  one's  own  hands  the  bread 
and  wdne  at  the  Communion,  and  so  forth,  he  regarded  as 
trifles,  the  performance  or  non-performance  of  which  in  no 
way  affected  the  true  liberty  of  the  faithful,  while  grievous 
wrong  was  done  to  the  souls  of  the  weaker  brethren,  if 
they  were  compelled  to  do  anything  therein  against  their 
consciences.  *By  acting  thus,'  he  says,  'you  have  made 
many  consciences  miserable  ;  if  they  had  to  give  an  account 
on  their  death-beds,  or  when  troubled  with  temptation,  they 
would  not  for  the  life  of  them  know  wdiy  or  how  they  had 
offended.'  Nay,  he  accuses  a  man  of  corrupting  souls,  who 
'  plunges '  them  carelessly  into  practices  that  offend  their 
consciences.  '  You  wish,'  he  says,  *  to  serve  God,  and  you 
don't  know  that  you  are  the  forerunners  of  the  devil.  He 
has  begun  by  attempting  to  dishonour  the  Word ;  he  has 
set  you  to  work  at  that  bit  of  folly,  so  that  meanwhile  you 
may  forget  faith  and  love.'  Thus  Luther  wrote  in  a  work 
intended  for  the  Wittenbergers.  Even  the  innovations 
with  regard  to  pictures  and  images  he  numbers  among  the 
*  trivial  matters  which  are  not  worth  the  sacrifice  of  faith 


268  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

and  love.'  Those  which  represented  truly  Christian  subjects 
he  would  preserve  at  all  times,  and  he  valued  them  highly. 

These  Wittenberg  Keformers,  however,  with  all  their 
desire  to  assert  the  higher  spiritual  character  of  evangelical 
Christianity,  still  remained  devotees,  in  their  peculiar  '  spirit,' 
to  the  externals  of  worship  and,  in  regard  to  images,  to  the 
letter  of  the  Old  Testament  law.  And  yet  their  conception  of 
the  Christian  spirit  and  of  Christian  revelation  produced 
results  of  another  and  still  stranger  kind.  Not  only  did 
they  repudiate  all  titles  and  dignities  conferred  by  the 
university,  on  the  plea  that,  in  the  words  of  Christ,  no  man 
durst  call  himself  Kabbi  or  master,  but  Carlstadt  and 
Zwilling  now  openly  expressed  their  contempt  of  all  human 
theology  and  biblical  learning.  God,  they  said,  has  hid 
these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  has  revealed 
them  unto  babes ;  the  Spirit  from  above  must  enlighten 
a  man.  Carlstadt  went  to  simple  burghers  in  their  houses, 
to  have  passages  in  the  Bible  explained  to  him.  He  and 
Zwilling  won  over  to  their  side  the  master  of  the  boys' 
school  in  the  town,  and  the  school  was  broken  up.  A  new 
municipal  constitution,  supported  by  the  magistracy,  made 
strange  inroads  on  the  rights  of  the  citizens  and  the  domain 
of  social  life ;  a  common  chest,  containing  the  revenues  of  the 
Church,  was  utilised  for  advancing  money  without  interest 
to  needy  handicraftsmen,  and  making  loans  to  other  towns- 
men at  a  low  rate  of  interest.  Meantime  the  spiritual 
wants  of  the  community  were  neglected,  and  in  the  hospitals 
and  prisons  entirely  overlooked. 

Such  was  the  direction  here  taken  by  the  reform  for 
which  Luther's  preaching  had  prepared  the  way.  And  just 
at  this  time,  at  Christmas,  three  fanatics  came  to  Wittenberg 
from  Zwickau,  with  the  object  of  taking  part  in  the  move- 
ment and  furthering  the  work  of  God.  These  were  Nicholas 
Storch,  a  weaver,  Mark  Stübner,  a  former  student  at 
Wittenberg,  and  another  weaver,  who  were  now  zealously 
joined  by  the  theologian  Martin  Cellar ius.     They  boasted 


LUTHER  AT  THE    WARTBURG.  269 

of  a  direct  revelation  from  God,  of  prophetic  visions,  dreams, 
and  familiar  conversations  with  the  Deity.  Compared  with 
these  pretensions,  Scriptm-e  was  a  thing  of  small  importance 
in  their  eyes.  They  rejected  infant  baptism,  as  incapable 
of  imparting  the  Spirit.  For  commmiion  and  intercourse 
with  God  they  looked  not  to  faith,  which,  as  Luther  taught, 
accepts  submissively  what  the  Word  of  God  reveals  to  the 
conscience  and  the  heart,  but  to  a  mystic  process  of  self- 
abstraction  from  everything  external,  sensual,  and  finite, 
until  the  soul  becomes  immovably  centred  in  the  one  Divine 
Being.  This  spirit,  seemingly  so  elevated  and  pure,  broke 
out  nevertheless  into  fanaticism  of  the  wildest  kind,  by 
proclaiming  and  demanding  a  general  revolution,  in  which 
all  the  priests  were  to  be  killed,  all  godless  men  destroyed, 
and  the  kingdom  of  God  established. 

These  fanatical  displays  had  begun  at  Zwickau,  no  doubt 
under  Bohemian  influence,  and  were  characterised  by  the 
ravings  common  to  the  middle  ages.  Thomas  Münzer,  from 
Stolberg  in  the  Harz  country,  who  was  a  preacher  at  one 
of  the  churches,  took  the  lead ;  and  he  was  certainly  the  most 
important  and  most  dangerous  personage  among  them.  He 
accounted  the  civil  authorities,  with  tlieir  rights,  no  more  as 
Christians  than  he  did  the  clergy  and  the  hierarchy ;  and 
began  already  to  prate  of  universal  equality  and  communism. 
This  novel  and  exciting  doctrine  soon  won  adherents,  and 
propagated  the  '  spirit  of  revelation.'  Already  disturbances 
were  brewing.  But  the  magistrates  took  vigorous  and 
timely  measures.  Storch,  Stübner,  and  Cellarius  fled  to 
Wittenberg,  w4iile  Münzer  roamed  about  elsewhere  in 
Germany. 

Carlstadt  went  on  with  his  innovations  without  allying 
himself  outwardly  with  these  refugees.  But  the  connection 
of  his  aims  with  theirs  could  not  be  mistaken,  and  as  time 
went  on,  became  more  and  more  apparent.  Melancthon, 
with  all  his  refinement  and  purity  of  soul,  had  not  sufii- 
cient  energy  and  independence  to  bridle  the  passions  and 


270  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

forces  that  had  been  aroused  by  Carlstadt.  The  Zwickau 
prophets,  with  their  visions  and  revelations,  haunted  him ; 
he  seemed  incapable  of  forming  any  settled  or  sober  judg- 
ment on  this  strange  and  sudden  phenomenon. 

Luther,  on  the  contrary,  received  the  news  with  calm- 
ness and  composure.  He  marvelled  at  the  anxiety  of  his 
friend,  who  in  intellect  and  learning  was  his  superior.  He 
found  no  difficulty  in  testing  these  enthusiasts  by  the 
standard  of  the  New  Testament.  There  was  nothing,  he 
said,  in  their  words  and  acts,  so  far  as  he  had  heard  any- 
thing of  them,  which  the  devil  might  not  do  or  mimic.  As 
for  their  so-called  ecstasies  of  devotion,  there  was  nothing 
in  all  that,  even  though  they  boasted  of  being  rapt  into  the 
third  heaven.  The  Majesty  of  God  was  not  wont  to  hold 
such  familiar  converse  with  men  in  old  time.  The  creature 
must  first  perish  before  his  Creator,  as  before  a  consuming 
fire :  when  God  speaks,  he  must  feel  the  meaning  of  the 
words  of  Isaiah,  *  As  a  lion,  so  wdll  he  break  all  my  bones.' 
And  yet  Luther  would  not  have  them  imprisoned  or  dealt 
with  by  violence ;  they  could  be  disposed  of  without  blood- 
shed and  the  sword,  and  be  laughed  out  of  their  folly. 

But  his  cares  for  his  Wittenberg  €ongi-egation  and  the 
trouble  which  Carlstadt' s  doings  there  were  giving  him,  left 
him  no  peace.  He  could  not  justify  those  acts  before  God 
and  the  world :  they  lay  upon  his  own  shoulders,  and  above 
all,  they  brought  discredit  on  the  gospel.  In  January  he 
went  back  to  Wittenberg.  He  was  entreated  to  do  so  by 
the  magistrates.  In  vain  did  the  Elector  attempt  to  detain 
him,  and  so  prevent  his  risking  an  appearance  in  public. 
Moreover,  the  Council  of  Eegency  at  Nuremberg,  which 
represented  the  Emperor  in  his  absence,  had  just  demanded 
of  Frederick  a  strict  suppression  of  the  innovations  at 
Wittenberg. 

Luther  quitted  the  Wartburg,  without  leave,  on  March  1. 
About  his  journey  thence  we  only  know  that  -lie  passed 
through   Jena   and  the    town   of  Borna,   lying   south  of 


:     'IHK  f 

ERSITl 

LUTHER  AT   THE    WARTBimG.^  ,3,371 


Leipzig.  A  young  Swiss,  John  Kessler  from 
^vas  then  on  his  way  with  a  companion  to  the  university  at 
Wittenberg,  has  left  us  an  interesting  account  of  their  meet- 
ing with  Luther  at  the  inn  of  the  '  Black  Bear,'  just  outside 
Jena.  They  found  there  a  solitary  horseman  sitting  at 
the  table,  '  dressed  after  the  fashion  of  the  country  in  a  red 
schlejM  (or  slouched  hat),  plain  hose  and  doublet— he  had 
thrown  aside  his  tabard — with  a  sword  at  his  side,  his  right 
hand  resting  on  the  pommel,  and  the  other  grasping  the 
hilt.'  Before  him  lay  a  little  book.  He  invited  them  in  a 
friendly  manner,  bashful  as  they  were,  to  take  a  seat  by  him, 
and  spoke  to  them  about  the  Wittenberg  studies,  about 
Melancthon  and  other  men  of  learning,  and  as  to  what 
people  thought  of  Luther  in  Switzerland.  Discoursing  thus, 
he  made  them  feel  so  much  at  ease,  that  Kessler's  com- 
panion took  up  the  little  book  lying  before  him,  and  opened 
it :  it  was  a  Hebrew  Psalter.  At  supper,  where  they  were 
joined  by  two  merchants,  he  paid  for  Kessler  and  his  friend, 
and  fascinated  them  all  by  his  '  agreeable  and  godly  dis- 
course.' Afterwards  he  drank  with  his  young  friends  *  one 
more  friendly  glass  for  a  blessing,'  gave  them  his  hand  at 
pai-ting,  and  charged  them  to  greet  the  jurist  Schürf  at 
Wittenberg,  who  was  a  fellow-countryman  of  theirs  by  birth, 
with  the  words  *  He  who  is  coming,  salutes  you.'  The  host 
had  recognised  Luther,  and  told  his  guests  who  he  was. 
Early  next  morning  the  merchants  found  him  in  the  stable  : 
he  mounted  his  horse,  and  rode  forward  on  his  way. 

At  Borna,  where  he  lodged  with  an  official  of  the  Elector, 
he  wrote  in  haste  a  long  answer  to  the  warning  instructions 
of  his  prince,  conveyed  to  him  by  the  governor  of  Eisenach  on 
the  eve  of  his  departure.  He  did  not  seek  to  excuse  himself, 
or  to  beg  forgiveness,  but  to  quiet  his  *  most  gracious  High- 
ness,' and  confirm  him  in  the  faith.  He  had  never  spoken 
with  greater  certainty  about  what  he  had  to  do,  nor  with  a 
calmer  and  more  joyful,  bold,  and  proud  assurance,  in  view  of 
what  lay  before  him,  than  now,  when  he  had  to  encounter, 


272  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

on  two  contrary  sides,  opposition  and  danger.  In  his  resolve 
and  his  hopes  he  threw  himself  entirely  on  his  God.  *  I  go 
to  Wittenberg,'  he  writes  to  Frederick,  *  under  a  far  higher 
protection  than  yours.  Nay,  I  hold  that  I  can  offer  your 
Highness  more  protection  than  your  Highness  can  offer 
me.  .  .  God  alone  must  be  the  worker  here,  without  any 
human  care  or  help ;  therefore,  he  who  has  the  most  faith 
will  be  able  to  give  the  most  protection.'  To  the  question 
what  the  Elector  should  do  in  his  cause,  he  answered, 
'nothing  at  all.'  The  Elector  must  allow  the  Imperial 
authorities  to  exercise  their  powers  m  his  territory  without 
let  or  hindrance,  even  if  they  chose  to  seize  him  or  put  him 
to  death.  The  Elector  would  surely  not  be  called  on  to  be 
his  executioner.  Should  he  leave  the  door  open  and  give 
safe- conduct  to  those  who  sought  to  capture  him,  he  would 
have  done  his  duty  quite  enough. 

Luther  rode  on  undaunted,  even  through  the  territory 
of  Duke  George,  who  was  now  violently  exasperated  with 
him  and  the  people  of  Wittenberg  ;  and  on  the  evening  of 
March  6  he  reached  his  destination  and  his  friends,  safe  in 
body  and  happy  in  his  mind. 

On  the  morning  of  the  following  Saturday,  Kessler  and 
his.  companion,  on  visiting  Schürf,  found  Luther  sitting 
at  his  house  with  Melancthon,  Jonas,  and  Amsdorf,  and 
telling  them  about  his  doings.  Kessler  thus  describes  his 
appearance.  *  When  I  saw  Martin  in  1522,  he  was  some- 
what stout,  but  upright,  bending  backwards  rather  than 
stooping ;  with  a  face  upturned  to  heaven ;  with  deep,  dark 
eyes  and  eyebrows,  twinkling  and  sparkling  like  stars,  so  that 
one  could  hardly  look  steadily  at  them.' 


273 


CHAPTEE  III. 


WITTENBERG,    1522. 


It  was  on  a  Thursday  that  Luther  arrived  agam  at  Witten- 
berg. The  very  next  Sunday  he  re- appeared  in  his  old 
pulpit  among  his  town  congregation.  In  clear,  simple, 
earnest,  and  Scriptural  language  he  endeavoured  to  explain 
to  them  their  errors,  and  to  lead  them  again  into  the  right 
way.  For  eight  successive  days  he  preached  in  this  man- 
ner. The  truths  and  principles  he  propounded  were  the 
same  that  he  uttered  from  the  Wartburg,  and,  indeed,  ever 
since  his  career  of  reformation  began.  Above  all  things 
he  exhorted  them  to  charity,  and  to  deal  with  their  faithful 
fellow- Christians  as  God  had  dealt  with  them  in  His  love, 
whereof  through  faith  they  were  partakers.  *  In  this,  dear 
friends,'  he  said,  '  you  are  almost  entirely  wanting,  and  not 
a  trace  of  charity  can  I  see  in  you,  but  perceive  rather 
that  you  have  not  been  thankful  to  God.  I  see,  indeed, 
that  you  can  discourse  well  enough  on  the  doctrines  of  faith 
and  love  which  have  been  preached  to  you,  and  no  wonder  : 
cannot  even  a  donkey  sing  his  lesson  ?  and  should  you  not 
then  speak  and  teach  the  doctrine  or  the  little  Word  ?  But 
the  kingdom  of  God  does  not  consist  in  talk  or  words,  but 
in  deeds,  in  works  and  practice.'  He  taught  them  to  dis- 
tinguish between  what  was  obligatory  and  what  was  free, 
between  what  was  to  be  observed  or  what  was  not.  Charity 
must  be  practised,  he  said,  even  in  essentials,  since  no  man 
must  compel  his  brother  by  force,  but  must  let  the  Word 
operate  on  the  hearts  of  the  weak  and  erring,  and  pray  for 

T 


274  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

them.  Whatever  is  free  must  be  left  free,  so  as  not  to 
cause  vexation  to  the  weak ;  but  against  unchristian  tyrants 
a  stand  must  be  made  for  fi-eedom. 

Thus,  with  the  sheer  power  and  fervour  of  his  eloquence, 
Luther  prevailed  with  his  congregation,  and  soon  had  the 
conduct  of  the  Church  movement  again  in  his  hands.  Zwill- 
ing allowed  himself  to  be  reproved.  Carlstadt  shrank  back 
silently,  though  sullenly ;  Luther  earnestly  begged  him  not 
to  publish  anything  hostile  and  thus  compel  him  to  a  battle. 
In  his  sermons  he  refrained  fi*om  all  personal  references.  Of 
the  recent  innovations,  only  one  was  retained,  the  omission 
from  the  mass  of  the  words  relating  to  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Body  of  Christ  by  the  priests.  Luther  considered  them 
downright  objectionable  and  unchristian ;  and  important  as 
they  were  in  themselves,  they  were  scarcely  noticed  by  the 
weak  and  simple,  being  uttered  in  Latin,  and  in  a  low  voice. 
The  sacrament  was  again  administered  to  the  majority  in 
one  kind  ;  and  only  those  who  expressly  desired  it  could 
receive  it  with  the  lay-cup  at  an  altar  set  aside  for  the  pur- 
pose. The  latter  form  of  celebration,  however,  soon  became 
the  general  custom,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  former.  As 
regards  the  vestments  to  be  worn  during  service,  the  taking 
the  elements  into  one's  own  hand,  and  such-like  matters. 
Lather  maintained  that  they  were  too  trifling  to  make  a 
fuss  about,  or  to  be  allowed  to  be  a  stumbling-block  to  the 
weak  adherents  of  the  old  system.  Luther  himself  returned 
to  live  at  the  convent,  resumed  his  cowl,  and  observed 
again  the  customary  ordinance  of  fasting.  It  was  only  after 
two  years,  when  his  frock  was  quite  worn  out,  and  he  had 
a  new  suit  made  of  some  good  cloth  which  the  Elector  had 
given  him,  that  he  laid  aside  altogether  his  monk's  dress. 

The  prophets  of  Zwickau  were  away  from  Wittenberg 
at  the  moment  when  Luther  returned  there.  A  few  weeks 
after  Stubner  and  Cellarius  appeared  before  Luther.  Their 
real  character  and  spu'it  were  now  fully  shown  him  by 
the  arrogance  and  violence   with   which   they   demanded 


LUTHER'S  RE-APPEARANCE  AT    WITTENBERG.  275 

belief  in  theii-  superior  authority,  and  by  their  outburst  of 
rage  when  he  ventured  to  contradict  them.  He  writes  thus 
to  Spalatin  :  '  I  have  caught  them  even  in  open  lying  ;  when 
they  tried  to  evade  me  with  miserable  smooth  words,  I  at 
last  bade  them  prove  their  teaching  by  miracles,  of  which 
they  boasted  agahist  the  Scriptures.  This  they  refused, 
but  threatened  that  I  should  have  to  believe  them  some 
day.  Thereupon  I  told  them  that  their  God  could  work  no 
mh-acle  against  the  will  of  my  God.  Thus  we  separated.' 
They  then  left  the  town  for  ever,  without  having  gained 
any  ground  there. 

Thus  Luther,  who  was  accused  by  his  enemies  of  sub- 
verting all  ordinances  of  the  Church,  began  his  practical 
labours  of  reform  by  checking,  through  the  firmness  and 
clearness  of  his  principles,  the  violence  of  others,  and 
concentrating  all  his  thoughts  on  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
his  congregation.  The  preacher  of  free  and  saving  faith 
was  the  foremost  to  insist,  in  the  practical  conduct  of  the 
Chm-ch,  upon  the  active  exercise  of  brotherly  love  in  the 
service  of  true  freedom.  The  great  man  of  the  people 
opposed  himself,  regardless  of  popular  favour  or  dislike,  to 
the  cm-rent  which  had  now  become  national.  Under  the 
influence  of  his  preaching  the  Elector  could  now  quietly 
ahow  matters  in  Wittenberg  and  the  neighbourhood  to 
shape  then*  further  course  in  quiet.  Nevertheless,  he  per- 
mitted the  neighbouring  bishops  to  work  against  the  new 
doctrines  by  visitations  in  his  country ;  he  only  denied 
them  the  assistance  of  magisterial  compulsion  and  temporal 
penalties.     The  truth  should  make  its  own  way. 

Luther,  immediately  on  his  return  to  Wittenberg,  was 
impatient  to  explain  in  full  to  German  Christendom  his 
position,  without  the  restraints  imposed  on  his  words  during 
his  residence  at  the  Wartburg.  This  he  did  in  a  letter 
to  the  knight  Hartmuth  von  Kronberg,  near  Frankfort- 
on-the-Main,  which  he  intended  for  publication.  The  latter, 
son-in-law  to   Sickingen,   a  man  of  upright,    honourable, 

T  2 


276  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

Cliristian  character,  had  pubhshed  a  couple  of  little  tracts 
in  Luther's  spirit.  Luther,  by  his  letter,  wished  to  *  visit 
him  in  spirit  and  make  known  to  him  his  joy.'  He  took 
the  opportunity,  at  the  same  time,  oi  speaking  his  mind 
plainly,  both  about  the  contest  he  had  to  wage  at  Witten- 
berg, and  the  hostility  to  the  gospel  displayed  by  Eoman- 
ists  in  Germany.  But  harder  yet  for  the  faith  than  the 
snares  of  such  enemies,  appeared  to  him  'the  cunning 
game '  devised  by  Satan  at  Wittenberg,  to  bring  reproach 
upon  the  gospel.  '  Not  all  my  enemies,'  he  said,  '  have  hit 
me  as  I  now  am  hit  by  our  people,  and  I  must  confess 
that  the  smoke  makes  my  eyes  smart  and  almost  tickles 
my  heart.  "  Hereby,"  thought  the  Evil  One,  "  I  will  take 
the  heart  out  of  Luther  and  weary  the  tough  spirit ;  this 
attack  he  will  neither  understand  nor  conquer  !  '"  Fear- 
lessly also,  and  in  a  manner  which  would  have  been 
impossible  to  him  at  the  Wartburg,  he  spoke  out  against 
the  grievous  '  sin  at  Worms,  when  the  truth  of  God  was 
so  childishly  despised,  so  publicly,  defiantly,  wilfully  con- 
demned ; '  it  was  a  sin  of  the  whole  German  nation,  because 
the  heads  had  done  this,  and  no  one  at  the  godless  Diet  had 
opposed  them.  He  reproached  himself  with  having,  in 
order  to  please  good  friends  there,  and  not  to  appear  too 
obstinate,  smothered  his  feelings  and  not  spoken  out  his 
belief  with  more  vigour  and  decision  before  the  tyrants, 
however  much  the  unbelieving  heathens  might  have  abused 
him  for  answering  haughtily.  Of  one  of  his  '  miserable 
enemies  '  he  says  :  *  The  chief  one  is  the  water-bladder  N., 
who  defies  Heaven  with  his  high  stomach,  and  has  re- 
nounced the  gospel.  He  would  like  to  devour  Christ,  as 
the  wolf  does  a  gnat.'  This  was  an  unmistakable  allusion 
to  Duke  George,  who,  in  his  bigoted  devotion  to  the  Church, 
was  especially  excited  by  the  dangerous  influences  which 
threatened  his  country  from  the  neighbouring  Wittenberg, 
and  who  shortly  before  had  made  violent  complaints  on  that 
account  to  the  Elector  Frederick.    Indeed,  in  a  copy  of  this 


LUTHER'S  RE-APPEARAAXE  AT  WETTEXBERG.  277 

letter,  he  was  mentioned  by  name.  Duke  George  after- 
wards demanded  satisfaction,  but  the  matter  was  prolonged 
without  any  result.  Luther  informs  Hartmuth  of  his 
return  to  Wittenberg,  but  adds  that  he  does  not  know  how 
long  he  will  remain  there.  He  announces  to  him  the  por- 
tion of  his  Postills  which  had  just  been  published,  and 
states  that  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  translate  the  Bible 
mto  German.  This,  he  said,  was  necessary  for  him,  for  it 
would  show  him  his  mistake  in  fancying  he  was  a  learned 
man. 

Luther  now  threw  himself  into  his  work  in  all  its 
branches.  He  resumed  his  academical  lectures  as  well  as 
the  regular  preaching  in  the  town  church,  and  he  also 
preached  on  week  days  on  the  different  books  of  the  Bible. 
These  sermons  he  continued  when,  in  the  follo*wing  year, 
after  the  death  of  the  old  pastor  Heins,  for  whom  he  had 
hitherto  acted  as  deputy,  his  friend  Bugenhagen  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  living.  He  and  Bugenhagen  remained  from 
now  until  the  latter  died,  united  by  personal  friendship  and 
common  theological  views,  and  laboured  faithfully  together 
in  the  service  of  then-  parochial  congregation.  Bugenhagen, 
as  town  pastor,  appears  as  one  of  the  most  prominent 
figm-es  in  the  history  of  Wittenberg  at  this  time.  Luther 
assisted  him  and  his  congregation  with  unselfish  affection 
and  friendship,  and  in  turn  made  confidential  use  of  his 
services  as  pastor  and  father-confessor. 

During  the  busy  times  of  Lent  and  Easter,  1522, 
Luther  had  again  undertaken  duty  among  the  Wittenberg 
congregation,  and  immediately  after  Easter  he  visited 
Borna,  Altenburg,  Zwickau,  and  Eilenburg,  where  the 
people  were  longing  to  hear  his  preaching,  and  where  he 
exerted  himself  to  have  an  evangelical  preacher  appointed. 
His  eyes  indeed  were  chiefly  fixed  on  Zwickau,  where  he 
was  resolved  to  counteract  finally  by  his  words  the  conse- 
quences of  the  recent  infatuation.  According  to  a  report 
made  by  a  state  official,  25,000  people  assembled  to  hear 


278  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

Luther,  who  preached  from  a  balcony  of  the  town-hall  to  the 
multitude  gathered  below.  At  Borna  he  preached  imme- 
diately before  a  visitation  held  there  by  the  Bishop  of  Merse- 
burg, and  again  on  the  day  after  it.  During  the  following 
autumn  he  also  preached  several  times  at  Weimar,  whither 
he  had  been  invited  by  John,  the  brother  of  the  Elector 
Frederick  ;  and  likewise  before  the  congregation  at  Erfurt, 
to  whom  during   the   summer  he  had  addressed  an  in- 


FlG.  27.  -BUGENHAGEN, 

From  a  picture  by  Cranach  in  his  album,  (at  Berlin,)  1543. 

structive    exhortation   in   writing   on   the   subject   of   the 
innovations. 

Even  at  Wittenberg  his  literary  labours,  as  we  have 
seen  from  his  letter  to  Kronberg,  were  still  mainly  devoted 
to  the  Bible.  In  concert  with  Melancthon,  and  with  the 
assistance  of  other  friends,  he  set  about  a  revision  of  his 
translation  of  the  New  Testament.  He  sent  the  first  sheets 
when  printed  to  Spalatin,  on  May  10,  as  a  *  foretaste  of 
our  new  Bible.'     With  the  aid  of  three  presses  the  printing 


LUTHER'S  RE-APPEARAXCE  AT   WFTTENBERG.  279 

progressed  so  rapidly,  that  already  in  September  the  work 
was  ready  for  publication.  September  21,  dedicated  to 
St.  Matthew,  is  distinguished  as  the  birthday  of  the  German 
New  Testament.  In  December  already  a  second  edition 
was  called  for,  though  the  price  of  the  book,  a  florin  and  a 
half,  was  a  high  one  at  that  time. 

The  work  was  greedily  and  thankfully  pounced  upon  by 
many  thousands  in  all  parts  of  Germany,  who  had  learnt 
from  Luther  to  distinguish  the  '  pure  Word  of  God '  from 
the  dogmas  of  the  Church,  and  to  honour  it  accordingly. 
Nor  could  any  means  more  powerful  than  this  be 
found  of  spreading  the  doctrine  thus  founded  on  the 
^Yord  of  God,  and  making  it  the  real  property  of  hearers 
and  readers.  All  the  greater  was  the  danger  recognised 
herein  by  those  who  adhered  to  ecclesiastical  authority 
and  traditions.  Of  great  significance  for  both  sides  are  the 
words  of  one  of  the  most  violent  of  Luther's  contemporary 
opponents,  the  theologian  Cochlseus  :  '  Luther's  New  Testa- 
ment was  multiplied  by  the  printers  in  a  most  wonderful 
degree,  so  that  even  shoemakers  and  women,  and  every  and 
any  lay  person  acquainted  with  ehe  German  type,  read  it 
greedily  as  the  fountain  of  all  truth,  and  by  repeatedly 
reading  it,  impressed  it  on  their  memory.  By  this  means 
they  acquired  in  a  few  months  so  much  knowledge,  that  they 
ventured  to  dispute,  not  only  with  Catholic  laymen,  but 
even  with  masters  and  doctors  of  theology,  about  faith 
and  the  gospel.  Luther  himself,  indeed,  had  long  before 
taught  that  even  Christian  w^omen,  and  everyone  wdio  had 
been  baptized,  were  in  truth  priests,  as  much  as  pope, 
bishop,  and  priests.  The  crowd  of  Lutherans  gave  them- 
selves far  more  trouble  in  learning  the  translation  of  the 
Bible  than  did  the  Catholics,  where  the  laity  left  such 
matters  chiefly  to  the  priests  and  monks.'  The  Catholic 
authorities  immediately  issued  orders  forbidding  the  book, 
and  du-ecting  it  to  be  delivered  up  and  confiscated.  They 
hastened  also  to  accuse  the  translation  of  a  number  of  pre- 


28o  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

tended  errors  and  falsifications,  which  were  mostly  corrections 
of  passages  mistranslated  in  the  established  Latin  version 
from  the  words  of  the  original  Greek  text.  Cochlaeus 
brought  one  particular  charge  against  Luther's  translation, 
that  he  had  ventured  to  alter  the  beginning  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer  in  contradiction  to  the  Universal,  including  the 
German  Church,  and  likewise  to  the  original  text,  by  sub- 
stituting '  Unser  Vater  in  dem  Himmel '  for  *  Vater  unser, 
der  du  bist  im  Himmel.'  ('  Our  Father  in  Heaven,'  for 
'Our  Father  which  art  in  Heaven').  When,  some  years 
later,  Emser  published  a  rival  translation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, it  was  found  to  be  in  great  part  a  transcript  of 
Luther's,  with  only  a  few  corrections  according  to  the  old 
Latin. 

Whilst  the  New  Testament  was  still  in  the  press,  Luther 
set  zealously  to  work  on  the  Old.  Here  he  encountered 
more  difiiculties,  on  account  of  the  language ;  but  he  had 
long  been  studying  Hebrew  with  devotion  and  zeal,  and 
moreover  he  could  now  get  the  assistance  of  his  new 
colleague,  Aurogallus,  who  was  especially  famous  for  teach- 
ing Hebrew.  Before  Christmas  the  five  Books  of  Moses 
were  ready  for  press ;  these  were  to  be  ^mblished  by  them- 
selves. In  1524  they  were  followed  by  two  other  parts, 
containing  the  biblical  books  (according  to  the  present 
German  order)  up  to  the  Song  of  Solomon.  His  translation 
of  the  prophets,  interrupted  by  other  work,  was  delayed  for 
several  years. 

Nor  was  Luther's  sharp  pen  long  idle  against  Kome,  as 
indeed  might  have  been  anticipated  from  his  letter  to 
Kronberg.  He  found  his  chief  occasion  for  attack  in  a 
series  of  new  edicts  and  other  measures  of  the  German 
bishops  against  the  innovations — the  abolition  of  clerical 
celibacy,  the  transgression  of  the  laws  of  fasting,  and  so 
on.  For  this  purpose  ecclesiastical  visitations  were  under- 
taken by  the  Bishops  of  Meissen  and  Merseburg,  such  as 
have  already  been  alluded  to  when  Luther  went  to  Zwickau. 


LUTHER'S  RE-APPEARANCE  AT   WITTENBERG.  281 

Luther's  sermons  against  the  abuse  of  Christian  Hborty 
'svere  follo^Yed  by  a  small  tract  entitled  '  On  the  necessity 
of  avoiding  human  doctrine.'  He  did  not  mean  it,  as  he 
said,  for  those  *  bold,  intemperate  heads ; '  but  he  wished 
to  preach  Christian  liberty  to  the  poor,  humble  con- 
sciences, enslaved  by  monkish  vows  and  ordinances,  that 
they  might  be  instructed  how,  by  God's  help  and  with- 
out danger,  to  escape  and  to  use  their  liberty  discreetly. 
Against  the  existing  Eomish  episcopacy  he  declared  war  to 
the  knife  m  a  treatise  '  Against  the  Order,  falsely  called 
Spii'itual,  of  Pope  and  Bishops.'  He  who  had  been  robbed 
of  his  title  of  priest  and  doctor  by  the  displeasure  of  Pope 
and  Emperor,  and  from  whom,  by  Papal  buhs,  the  '  mark 
of  the  beast '  (Kev.  xiii.  16)  was  washed  off,  confronts  the 

*  popish  bishops '  now,  as  '  by  God's  grace,  jDreacher  at 
Wittenberg.' 

Luther's  further  writings  against  the  Eomish  Churchdom  \ 
and  dogma  do  not  possess  the  same  interest  for  us  as  his  \ 
earher  ones,  inasmuch  as  they  no  longer  show  the  progress  1 
and  development  of  his  own  views  on  the  Church.  In  the  I 
violent  language  he  now  employs  he  vents  his  chief  anger  1 
in  complaining  that  he,  and  the  truth  he  represented,  '  had  / 
been  condemned  unheard — an  unexampled  proceeding — un-  / 
refuted,  and  in  headlong  and  criminal  haste.' 

With  reference   to   the  attack   he   had   made   on   the 

*  episcopal  masqueraders  '  in  the  tract  above  mentioned, 
Luther  remarked  in  a  letter  to  Spalatin  on  July  26  that 
he  had  purposely  been  so  sharp  in  it,  because  he  saw  how 
vainly  he  had  humbled  himself,  yielded,  prayed  and  com- 
plained. And  he  added  that  he  would  just  as  little  flatter 
the  King  of  England. 

King  Henry  VIH.,  who  later  on,  for  other  reasons,  broke 
so  entu-ely  with  the  Church  of  Kome  and  began  reforms 
after  his  own  fashion,  had  at  that  time  gained  for  himself 
from  the  Pope  the  title  of  '  Defender  of  the  Faith,'  on 
account  of  a  learned  scholastic  treatise  against  Luther's 


282  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

*  Babylonish  Captivity.'  This  treatise  had  made  such  a 
stir,  that  Luther  thought  it  exj^edient  to  answer  it  in  one 
of  his  own.  The  latter,  originally  written  in  Latin,  gives  a 
carefully  considered  explanation  of  the  points  of  doctrine 
at  issue,  and  proceeds  to  prove  the  propositions  he  had 
previously  advanced.  He  points  out  fundamental,  and, 
indeed,  irreconcilable  variance  between  his  principles  and 
those  of  the  King,  by  showing  how  he,  Luther,  fought 
for  freedom  and  established  it,  while  the  King,  on  the 
contrary,  took  up  the  cudgels  for  captivity,  without  even 
attempting  to  justify  it  by  argument,  but  simply  kept 
talking  of  what  it  consists  of,  and  how  people  must  be  con- 
tent to  remain  in  it.  In  fact,  the  whole  book  was  a  mere 
reiteration  of  the  dogmas  of  ecclesiastical  authorities,  of 
the  Councils,  and  of  tradition,  always  taking  it  for  granted 
that  these  dare  not  be  disputed.  '  I  do  not  need,'  says 
Luther,  *  the  Kmg  to  teach  me  this.'  But  the  personal 
tone  adopted  by  Luther  against  Henry  went  beyond  any- 
thing that  his  expressions  to  Spalatin  might  have  led  one 
to  expect,  and  was  even  more  marked  in  a  German  edition 
of  his  treatise,  which  he  published  after  the  royiil  one  had 
been  translated  into  German.  The  King  had,  moreover, 
set  the  example  of  abuse,  as  coarse  and  defiant  as  that  of 
his  opponent.  Luther  did  not  shrink  from  an  incidental 
remark  at  the  expense  of  other  princes.  '  King  Henry,'  he 
says,  *  must  help  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  proverb,  that 
there  are  no  greater  fools  than  kings  and  princes.' 

But  the  most  important  among  the  works  which  Luther 
was  now  led  to  undertake  by  his  opposition  to  the  Eomish 
Church  and  her  teaching,  and  by  her  hostile  proceedings 
against  himself,  was  a  treatise  on  the  secular  power,  which 
he  began  in  December,  as  soon  as  he  had  finished  the 
translation  of  the  five  Books  of  Moses.  It  appeared  under 
the  title  of  *  On  the  Secular  Power,  and  how  far  obedience  is 
due  to  it.' 

How  far  obedience  is  due  to  it  ?     This  was  the  question 


LUTHER'S  RE-APPEARAAXE  AT    WITTENBERG.  283 

provoked  by  the  commands  and  threats  of  punishment 
with  which  Cathohc  princes  were  now  endeavouring  to  aid 
the  spu-itual  power  in  suppressing  the  gospel,  the  writings 
on  reform,  and  especially  the  new  translation  of  the  Bible. 
The  question  was,  how  far  a  Christian  was  bound  to  obey. 

Nor  had  Luther  to  step  forward  less  decisively  as  the 
champion  of  the  rights,  the  Divine  authority,  and  the  dignity 
of  the  civil  power,  against  the  pretensions  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  Words  of  Jesus  such  as  these  lay  before  him  : 
*  But  I  say  unto  you,  that  ye  resist  not  evil :  but  whosoever 
shall  smite  thee  on  thy  right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other 
also.'  How  could  these  words  be  reconciled  with  the  fact  that 
the  secular  arm  resisted  ^^Tong  with  force,  and  raised  the  sword 
against  the  evil-doer  ?  The  Church  of  the  middle  ages  and 
the  School  theology  maintained  that  these  words  were  not 
general  moral  commands  for  all  Christians,  but  merely 
advice  for  those  among  them  who  wished  to  attain  a  higher 
degree  of  perfection.  Hereby  the  whole  civil  government 
with  its  authorities  was  assigned  a  lower  grade  of  ordi- 
nary morality,  whilst  higher  morality  or  true  perfection  was 
to  be  represented  in  the  priestly  office  and  monasticism. 
On  the  other  hand,  friends  of  Luther,  ere  now,  while  taking 
note  that  Christ  had  spoken  these  words  direct  to  all  his 
disciples,  and  therefore  to  all  Christians,  had  been  troubled 
to  know  how  to  establish,  with  regard  to  Christians,  the 
rights  and  duties  of  temporal  power. 

With  respect  to  this  second  point  in  particular  Luther 
now  gives  his  explanation.  Those  words  of  Christ  were  un- 
questionably commands  for  all  Christians.  They  demand  of 
every  Christian  that  he  should  never  on  his  own  account 
gi-asp  the  sword  and  employ  force ;  and  if  only  the  world 
were  full  of  good  Christians  there  would  be  no  need  of  the 
sword  of  secular  authority.  But  it  is  necessary  to  wield  it 
against  evil  for  the  general  welfare,  to  punish  sin  and  to 
preserve  the  peace  ;  and  therefore  the  true  Christian,  in  or- 
der thereby  to  serve  his  neighboui*,  must  willingly  submit  to 


284  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

the  rule  of  this  sword,  and,  if  God  assigns  him  an  office,  must 
wield  this  sword  himself.     This  command  of  Scripture  is 
confirmed  by  other  passages,  as  for  instance  by  the  words 
of  the  Apostle :  '  Let  every  soul  be  subject  unto  the  higher 
powers.    For  there  is  no  power  but  of  God  :  the  powers  that 
be  are  ordained  of  God.     For  he  is  the  minister  of  God  to 
thee  for  good  .  .  .  for  he  beareth  not  the  sword  in  vain.' 
(Komans  xiii.).     Luther  thus  ranks  the  vocation  of  civil 
government  together  with  the  other  vocations  of  moral  Ufe 
in  the  world.    They  are  all,  he  said,  instituted  by  God,  and  all 
of  them,  no  less  than  the  so-called  priestly  oöice,  are  intended 
and  able  to  serve  God  and  one's  neighbour.    These  were  ideas 
which  laid  the  foundation  for  a  new  Christian  estimate  of 
political,  civic,  and  temporal  Hfe  in  general.    Thus,  later  on, 
the  Augsburg  Confession  rejected  the  doctrine  that  to  attain 
evangehcal  perfection,  a  man  must  renounce  his  worldly 
calling,  as  also  the  theory  of  the  Anabaptists,  who  would 
allow  no  Christian  to  hold  civil  of&ce  or  to  wield  the  sword. 
But   Luther,  while   thus  determining  the  province  of 
secular  authority,  took  care  to  impose  limits  on  its  juris- 
diction, and  to  guard  against  those  limits  being  invaded. 
The  true  spuitual  government,  as  instituted  by  Christ,  was 
mtended  to  make  men  good,  by  working  upon  the  soul  by 
the   Word,  in   the   power  of   the   Spirit.      The   temporal 
government,  w^hose  duty  it  was  to  secure  external  peace  and 
order,  and  to  protect  men  against  evil-doers,  extends  only  to 
'  what  is  external  upon  earth,'— over  person  and  property. 
'  For  God  cannot  and  will  not  allow  anyone  but  Himself 
alone  to  rule  the  soul.' — '  No  one  can  or  shall  force  another 
to  beheve.' — '  True  is  the  proverb  :  ''  Thoughts  are  free  of 
taxes."'     We  must  *obey  God  rather  than  man,'  as  St. 
Peter  says :  these  words  impose  a  limit  on  temporal  power. 
Luther  is  aware  of  the  objection,  that  the  temporal  power 
does  not  force  a  man  to  believe,  but  only  outwardly  guards 
against  heretics,  to  prevent  them  from  leading  the  people 
astray  with  false  doctrines.     But  he  answers ;  '  Such  an 


LUTHER'S  RE-APPEARANCE  AT  WITTENBERG.  285 

office  belongs  to  bishops,  and  not  to  princes.  God's  Word 
must  here  contend  for  mastery.  Heresy  is  something  spiri- 
tual, that  cannot  be  hewn  with  steel  nor  burned  with  fire.' 
And  among  these  invasions  of  the  province  and  office  of 
the  Word,  Luther  includes  the  edict  to  confiscate  books. 
Herein  must  subjects  obey  God  rather  than  such  tyrannical 
princes.  They  are  to  leave  the  exercise  of  outward  power, 
even  in  this  matter,  to  the  civil  authorities,  they  must  never 
venture  to  oppose  them  by  force ;  they  must  suffer  it,  if 
men  invade  their  houses,  and  take  away  their  books  or 
property.  But  if  they  attempt  to  rob  them  of  theii*  Bible, 
they  must  not  surrender  a  page  or  a  letter. 

These  are  the  most  powerful  and  comprehensive  utter- 
ances which  we  possess  from  the  mouth  of  the  Keformer, 
about  the  demarcation  of  these  provinces  of  authority,  the 
independent  operation  of  the  Word  and  the  Spirit,  and 
liberty  of  conscience.  It  is  doubtful,  indeed,  how  far  they 
are  consonant  with  those  measures  which  he  afterw^ards 
found  admissible  and  advisable  for  the  protection  of  evan- 
gelical communities  and  evangelical  truth  against  those  who 
attempted  to  lead  them  astray. 

Amidst  such  active  labours  the  year  of  Luther's  retm'n 
to  Wittenberg  passed  away. 


286  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

LUTHER  AND   HIS  ANTI- CATHOLIC   WORK  OF   REFORMATION, 
UP   TO    1525 

Luther,  as  we  have  seen,  was  able  to  prosecute  his  labours 
at  Wittenberg,  undisturbed  by  the  act  of  the  Diet.  In 
other  parts  of  Germany  as  well,  the  imperial  power  left 
wide  scope  for  the  spread  of  his  teaching.  At  the  next 
approaching  Diet  at  Nuremberg  no  majority  could  be  looked 
for  again,  to  give  effect  to  the  consequences  demanded  by 
the  Edict  of  Worms.  Any  such  expectation  was  the  more 
futile,  from  the  results,  already  experienced,  of  Luther's  re- 
appearance in  public. 

The  new  Pope,  Hadrian  VL,  whilst  adhering  strictly 
to  the  doctrines  of  mediaeval  Scholasticism  and  of  Church 
authority,  nevertheless,  by  his  honest  avowal  of  eccle- 
siastical abuses,  and  the  firmness  and  earnestness  of  his 
personal  character,  led  men  to  expect  a  new  era  of 
energetic  reform  for  the  Eomish  Church,  at  least  in  regard 
to  the  discipline  of  the  clergy  and  monks,  and  to  a 
conscientious  restraint  of  Church  ordinances,  so  that 
even  men  like  Erasmus  might  rest  content.  And  yet, 
he  was  the  very  one  who  sought  now  to  stamp  out  with  all 
severity  the  Lutheran  heresy  and  its  innovations.  With 
this  object  he  broke  out  into  low  abuse  and  slander  against 
Luther  personally,  as  a  drunkard  and  a  debauchee.  Libels 
of  this  kind  were  perpetually  repeated  by  the  Eomanists, 
and  no  doubt  Hadrian  believed  them,  though  Luther  did 
not  trouble  himself  much  about  such  personal  attacks,  but 
in  his  letters  to  Spalatin,  simply  called  the  Pope  an  ass. 


FURTHER    WORK   OF  REFORMATIOX.  287 

Hadrian  also,  like  so  many  Eomish  Churchmen  after  him, 
was  extremely  zealous  to  impress  upon  princes  that  he  who 
despises  the  sacred  decrees  and  the  heads  of  the  Church, 
would  cease  to  respect  a  temporal  throne. 

But  the  Diet  which  assembled  at  Nuremberg  in  the 
winter  of  1522-23,  replied  to  the  demands  of  the  Pope 
by  renewing  the  old  grievances  of  the  German  nation, 
and  insisting  on  a  free  Christian  Council,  to  be  held  in 
Germany. 

Nor  did  even  an  unfortunate  military  enterprise,  under- 
taken at  this  time  against  the  Archbishop  of  Treves  by 
Sickingen,  who,  while  fighting  for  his  own  power  and  the 
interests  of  the  German  nobles,  announced  his  wish  also  to 
break  road  for  the  Gospel,  produce  those  disastrous  results 
for  the  evangelical  cause  in  Germany  which  its  enemies  had 
anticipated  and  hoped  for.  Sickingen,  indeed,  after  being 
defeated  by  the  superior  forces  of  the  allied  princes,  died 
of  the  wounds  he  received,  but  it  was  as  clear  as  noonday 
that  Frederick  the  Wise  and  his  evangelical  theologians  had 
had  nothing  to  do  with  his  act  of  violence.  Luther,  on 
hearing  of  Sickingen' s  enterprise,  remarked  that  it  would 
be  '  a  very  bad  business,'  and  added,  on  learning  the  issue, 

*  God  is  a  just,  but  a  marvellous  judge.' 

The  next  meeting  of  the  Diet,  from  whom,  after  Hadrian's 
early  death,  his  successor,  Clement  VH. — another  modern 
Pope  of  Leo's  way  of  thinking — demanded  anew  the  execu- 
tion of  the  Edict  of  Worms,  resulted  in  the  imperial  decree 
of  April  18, 1524.  By  this,  the  states  of  the  Empire  agreed 
to  execute  that  edict  *  as  far  as  possible,'  but  stipulated  that 
the  Lutheran  and  the  other  new  doctrines  should  first  be 

*  examined  with  the  utmost  diligence,'  and,  together  with 
the  grievances  presented  by  the  princes  against  the  Pope 
and  the  hierarchy,  should  be  made  the  subject  of  a  repre- 
sentation to  the  Council  now  demanded.  But  the  inconsis- 
tency that  lurked  in  this  decree  caught  Luther's  eye  and 
aroused  his  suspicion.     It  was  scandalous,  he  declared  in  a 


288  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

paper  upon  it,  that  the  Emperor  and  the  princes  should 
issue  *  contradictory  orders.'  They  were  going  to  deal 
with  him  according  to  the  Edict  of  Worms,  and  proclaim 
him  a  condemned  man,  and  persecute  him,  and  at  the  same 
moment  wait  to  decide  what  was  good  or  had  in  his  doc- 
trines. But  the  decree  was,  in  fact,  a  subterfuge,  by  which 
they  resigned  the  idea  of  executing  that  edict.  The  Lord's 
Supper  could  be  celebrated  at  Nuremberg  in  the  new  way 
before  the  eyes  of  the  whole  Diet.  Well  might  Frederick 
the  Wise  hope  that  men  would  still,  at  least  in  Germany, 
come  gradually  to  agree  in  peace  about  the  truth  contained 
in  Luther's  preaching. 

The  absent  Emperor,  indeed,  remained  insensible  to  all 
such  influences.  In  the  Netherlands  strict  penal  law^s  were 
in  force.  In  a  letter  addressed  to  the  German  Empire  he 
condemned  the  decree  of  Nuremberg,  and,  like  Hadrian, 
compared  Luther  to  Mahomet.  Further,  a  minority  of  the 
German  princes,  including,  in  particular,  Ferdinand  of 
Austria,  and  the  Dukes  William  and  Louis  of  Bavaria, 
entered  into  a  league  at  Katisbon  to  execute  the  Edict  of 
Worms,  while  agreeing  to  certain  reforms  in  the  Church, 
according  to  a  Papal  scheme  proposed  by  his  nuncio  Cam- 
peggio.  They  too  began  to  persecute  and  punish  the 
heretics. 

Thus,  then,  the  seed  sown  by  Luther  began  to  germinate 
throughout  the  whole  of  Germany.  The  number  of  Lutheran 
preachers  increased,  and  requests  were  made  in  many  places 
for  their  services.  Even  Cochlaeus  had  to  confess  that,  how- 
ever bad  were  their  ultimate  objects,  they  showed  a  remark- 
able unselfishness  and  industry  in  their  calling,  and  that  they 
avoided  even  the  appearance  of  pushing  themselves  forward 
in  an  irregular  and  arbitrary  manner,  waiting  rather  for  their 
appointment  in  due  course  by  the  nobles  or  the  various 
congregations.  Among  the  treatises  and  other  writings  on 
ecclesiastical  and  religious  questions  which  inundated  Ger- 
many at  that  time,  at  least  ten  were  written  on  the  Lutheran, 


FURTHER    WORK  OF  REFORMATION.  289 

to  one  on  the  Komish  side.  The  complaint  was  that  there 
were  not  more  numerous  and  better  quahlied  printers  for 
the  work. 

Among  the  nobles  who  espoused  the  cause  of  Luther, 
the  support  of  Albert  of  Mansfeld,  one  of  the  Counts  of 
Luther's  native  place,  was  particularly  grateful.  It  was 
mainly  by  the  nobles  that  the  movement  was  represented 
in  Austria. 

But  the  gospel  gained  most  gi'ound  in  German  towns, 
especially  among  the  burgher  class  in  the  free  cities  of  the 
Empire.  Preachers  were  invited  hither,  where  none  already 
existed,  and  the  mass  was  publicly  abolished.  This  took 
place  during  1523  and  1524  at  Magdeburg,  Frankfort-on- 
the-Main,  Schwäbish  Hall,  Nuremberg,  Ulm,  Strasburg, 
Breslau,  and  Bremen.  On  Saxon  territory  also,  Lutheran 
congregations  were  formed  in  various  towns,  such  as  Zwic- 
kau, Altenburg,  and  Eisenach.  In  many  cases  Luther's 
personal  fi'iends  took  part  in  the  movement,  and  thus 
cemented  more  closely  their  friendship  with  the  Reformer. 
He  had  ah-eady  some  trusted  fellow-labourers  at  Nuremberg. 
At  Magdebm-g  his  friend  Amsdorf  was  pastor.  Hess,  the 
first  eva.ngelical  pastor  of  Breslau,  had  formed  some  years 
earlier  a  warm  friendship  with  him  and  Melancthon.  Link, 
his  old  friend,  and  the  successor  of  Staupitz  as  Vicar-General 
of  the  Augustines,  held  office  as  a  preacher  at  Altenburg, 
whence  he  was  recalled,  for  the  same  purpose,  in  1525, 
to  Nuremberg,  his  former  place  of  residence.  Wherever 
Luther  heard  of  evangelical  communities  who  seemed  to 
need  especial  help  for  their  strengthening  or  consolation 
under  trouble,  he  addi*essed  to  them  letters,  which  were  after- 
wards circulated  in  print.  These  were  sent,  for  instance,  to 
Esslingen,  Augsburg,  Worms ;  also  to  his  *  beloved  friends 
in  Christ '  at  Wittenberg,  who  had  been  harassed  by  the 
Romanists,  and  whose  cause  he  pleaded  to  the  Archbishop 
Albert.  With  particular  joy  he  sent  greetings  to  the  *  chosen 
and  dear  friends  in  God '  in  the   distant  towns  of  Riga, 

u 


290  EXILE,   RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

Beval,  and  Porpat ;  and  he  sent  them  also  an  exposition 
of  the  127th  Psalm. 

The  Word,  rejected  and  condemned  as  it  had  been  by 
bishops  and  priests  in  Germany,  met  with  singular  success 
beyond  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  Empke,  among  the 
Order  of  Teutonic  Knights  in  Prussia.     The  Grand  Master 
of  the  Order,  Albert  of  Brandenburg,  brother  of  the  Elector 
of  Brandenburg,  and  cousin  of  Albert,  the  Archbishop  and 
Cardinal,  had  kept  up  communication  with  Luther,  both 
orally  and  by  letter,  and  had  been  advised  by  him  and 
Melancthon  to  make  himself  familiar  with  the  gospel  and 
the  principles  of  the  Evangehcal  Church.     And,  above  all, 
there  were  here  two  bishops  who  espoused  the  new  teaching, 
and  who  were  anxious  to  tend  the  flocks  committed  to  their 
charge   as   true   evangelical  bishops   or  overseers,   in  the 
sense  insisted  on  by  Luther,  and  particularly  to  minister  to 
the  Word  by  preaching  and  by  the  care  of  souls.     These 
were  George  of  Polenz,  Bishop  of  Samland  since  1523,  and 
Erhard  of  Queiss,  Bishop  of  Pomerania  since  1524.     The 
members  of  the  Order,  almost  without  exception,  were  on 
their  side  :  they  resolved  to  establish  a  temporal  princedom 
in  Prussia  and  to  renounce  their  vows  of  '  false  chastity  and 
spirituality.'     The  King  of  Poland,  under  whose  suzerainty 
the  country  had  long  been,  solemnly  invested  the  hitherto 
Grand  Master  on  April  10,  1525,  as  hereditary  Duke  of 
Prussia.      Thus   Prussia    became   the  first   territory  that 
collectively  embraced  the  Reformation,  whilst  as  yet,  even 
in  the  Electorate  of  Saxony,  no  general  measures  had  been 
taken  in  its  support.    It  became,  in  short,  the  first  Protestant 
country.     Luther  wrote  to  the  new  Duke :  '  I  am  greatly 
rejoiced  that  Almighty  God  has  so  graciously  and  wondrously 
helped   your   princely  Grace   to   attain   such  an  eminent 
position,  and  further  my  wish  is  that  the  same  merciful 
God  may  continue  His  blessing  to  your  Grace  through  life, 
for  the  benefit  and  godly  welfare  of  the  whole  country.' 
And  to  the  Archbishop  Albert  he  held  the  new  Duke  up  as 


FURTHER    WORK  OF  REFORMATION.  291 

a  shining  example,  in  saying  of  him,  '  How  graciously  has  God 
sent  such  a  change,  as,  ten  years  ago,  could  not  have  heen 
hoped  for  or  believed  in,  even  had  ten  Isaiahs  and  Pauls  an- 
nounced it.  But  because  he  gave  room  and  honour  to  the 
gospel,  the  gospel  in  return  has  given  him  far  more  room 
and  honour — more  than  he  could  have  dared  to  wish  for.' 

The  gospel  now  received  its  first  testimony  in  blood. 
With  joyful  confidence  Luther  beheld  what  God  had  done, 
but  could  «not  refrain  from  lamenting,  with  sorrowful 
humility,  that  he  himself  had  not  been  found  worthy  of 
martyrdom.  In  the  Imperial  hereditary  lands,  where  for 
some  years  missionaries,  chiefly  members  of  Luther's  own 
Augustine  Order,  had  been  actively  labouring  in  the  strength 
of  the  convictions  derived  from  Wittenberg,  two  young 
Augustine  monks,  Henry  Voes  and  John  Esch,  were  publicly 
burnt,  on  July  1,  1523,  as  heretics.  Luther  thereupon 
addressed  a  letter  to  '  the  beloved  Christians  in  Holland, 
Brabant,  and  Flanders,'  praising  God  for  His  wondrous 
light,  that  He  had  caused  again  to  dawn.  He  spoke  out 
even  stronger  in  some  verses  in  which  he  celebrated  the 
young  martyrs ;  they  were  published  no  doubt  originally  as 
a  broadsheet : 

A  new  song  will  we  raise  to  Him 

Who  ruleth,  God  our  Lord; 

And  we  will  sing  what  God  hath  done, 

In  honour  of  His  Word. 

At  Brussels  in  the  Netherlands, 

It  was  through  two  young  lads, 

He  hath  made  known  His  Wonders,  &c. 

They  conclude  as  follows : — 

So  let  us  thank  our  God  to  see 
His  Word  returned  at  last. 
The  Summer  now  is  at  the  door, 
The  Winter  is  forepast, 
The  tender  flowerets  bloom  anew, 
TT  ;; 


292  EXILE,   RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

And  He,  who  hath  begun, 

Will  give  His  work  a  happy  end. 


He  was,  later  on,  deeply  gi'ieved  by  the  death  of  his 
brother-Augustine  and  friend  Henry  Moller  of  Zütphen, 
who,  after  having  been  forced  to  fly  from  the  Netherlands, 
had  begun  a  blessed  w^ork  at  Bremen,  and  was  now  murdered 
in  the  most  brutal  manner  on  December  11,  1524,  by  a 
mob  instigated  by  monks,  near  Meldorf,  whither  he  had 
gone  in  response  to  an  invitation  from  some  of  his  com- 
panions in  the  faith.  Luther  informed  his  Christian 
brethren  in  a  circular  of  the  end  of  this  '  blessed  brother ' 
and  *  Evangelist.'  He  mentions,  with  him,  the  tw^o  martyrs 
of  Brussels,  as  well  as  other  disciples  of  the  new  doctrine ; 
one  Caspar  Tauber,  who  was  executed  at  Vienna,  a  book- 
seller named  Georg,  who  w^as  burnt  at  Pesth,  and  one  who 
had  been  recently  burnt  at  Prague.  '  These  and  such  as 
these,'  he  adds,  *  are  they  whose  blood  will  drown  the 
popedom,  together  with  its  god,  the  devil.' 

With  regard  to  his  work  of  reformation,  w^hich  had  now 
spread  so  widely  and  found  so  many  coadjutors,  Luther 
at  present  thought  as  little  about  the  outward  constitution 
of  a  new  Church  as  he  had  thought  about  any  outw^ard 
organisation  of  the  war  itself,  or  an  external  alliance  of  his 
adherents,  or  of  a  cleverly  devised  propaganda.  Just  as 
here  the  simple  Word  was  to  achieve  the  victory,  so  his  whole 
efforts  were  devoted  solely  to  restoring  to  the  congregations 
the  possession  and  enjoyment  of  that  Word  in  all  its  purity, 
that  they  might  gather  round  it,  and  be  thereby  further 
edified,  sustained,  and  guided. 

Wherever  this  privilege  was  denied  to  Christians,  Luther 
claimed  for  them  the  right,  by  virtue  of  their  universal 
priesthood,  to  ordain  a  priest  for  themselves,  and  to  reject 
the  ensnaring  deceits  of  mere  human  doctrine.  He  declared 
himself  to  this  effect,  in  a  treatise  written  in  1523,  and 
intended   in  the   first  instance    for   the   Bohemians — that 


FURTHER    WORK   OF  REFORMATION.  293 

is  to  say,  for  the  so-called  Utraquists  who  were  then 
the  leading  party  in  Bohemia.  These  sectaries,  whose 
only  ground  of  estrangement  from  Eome  was  the  question 
of  administering  the  cup  to  the  laity,  and  who  had  never 
thought  of  separating  themselves  from  the  so-called  Apos- 
tolical succession  of  the  episcopate  in  the  Catholic  Church, 
Luther  then  hoped,  albeit  in  vain,  to  win  over  to  a  genuine 
evangelical  belief  and  practice  of  religion.  In  this  treatise 
he  went  a  step  beyond  the  election  of  pastors  by  their 
congregations,  by  maintaining  that  a  whole  district,  com- 
posed of  such  evangelical  communities,  might  appoint 
their  own  overseer,  who  should  exercise  control  over  them, 
until  the  final  establishment  of  a  supreme  bishopric,  of  an 
evangelical  character,  for  the  entire  national  Church.  But 
of  any  such  ecclesiastical  edifice  for  Germany,  wholly 
absorbed  as  he  was  in  her  immediate  needs,  he  had  not 
yet  said  a  word.  Congregations  of  such  a  kind,  and  suit- 
able for  such  a  purpose,  could  only  be  created  by  preaching 
the  Word ;  nor  had  Luther  yet  abandoned  the  hope  that 
the  existing  German  episcopate,  as  already  had  been  the 
case  in  Prussia,  would  accept  an  evangelical  reconstruction 
on  a  much  larger  scale.  With  regard  to  individual  congre- 
gations, moreover,  it  was  the  opinion  of  Luther  and  his 
friends  that,  where  the  local  magistrates  and  patrons  of 
the  Church  were  inclined  to  the  gospel,  the  appointment  of 
pastors  might  be  made  by  them  in  a  regular  way.  A 
separation  of  civil  communities,  each  represented  by  their 
own  magistrate,  from  the  ecclesiastical  or  religious  units, 
was  an  idea  wholly  foreign  to  that  time. 

That  the  word  of  God  should  be  preached  to  the  various 
congregations  in  a  pure  and  earnest  manner,  that  those 
congregations  themselves  should  be  entrusted  with  the 
work,  should  make  it  their  own,  and,  in  reliance  thereon, 
should  lift  up  their  hearts  to  God  with  prayer,  supplication, 
and  thanksgiving,  —this  was  the  fixed  object  which  Luther 
held  in  view   in   all  the   regulations    which   he   made   at 


294  EXILE,   RETURN,   AND  MARRIAGE. 

Wittenberg,  and  wished  to  institute  in  other  places.  In  this 
spirit  he  advanced  cautiously  and  by  degrees  in  the  changes 
introduced  in  public  worship, — changes  which,  as  he  admits, 
he  had  commenced  with  fear  and  hesitation.  '  That  the 
Word  itself,'  he  says,  '  should  advance  mightily  among 
Christians,  is  shown  by  the  whole  of  Scripture,  and  Christ 
Himself  says  (Luke  x.)  that  "one  thing  is  needful,"  namely, 
that  Mary  should  sit  at  the  feet  of  Christ,  and  hear  His 
Word  daily.  His  Word  endures  for  ever,  and  all  else  must 
melt  away  before  it,  however  much  Martha  may  have  to 
do.'  He  points  out  as  one  of  the  great  abuses  of  the  old 
system  of  w^orship,  that  the  people  had  to  keep  silence 
about  the  Word,  while  all  the  time  they  had  to  accept  un- 
christian fables  and  falsehoods  in  what  was  read,  and 
sung,  and  preached  in  the  churches,  and  to  perform  public 
worship  as  a  work  which  should  entitle  them  to  the  grace 
of  God.  He  now  set  vigorously  about  separating  the  mere 
furniture  of  worship.  As  to  the  Word  itself,  on  the  contrary, 
he  was  anxious  to  have  it  preached  to  the  congregation, 
wherever  possible,  every  Sunday  morning  and  evening,  and 
on  week-days,  at  least  to  the  students  and  others,  who  desked 
to  hear  it :  this  was  actually  done  at  Wittenberg.  Innova- 
tions, not  apparently  required  by  his  principles,  he  shunned 
himself,  and  warned  others  to  do  so  likewise.  Nor  was  he 
less  diligent  to  guard  against  the  danger  of  having  the 
new  forms  of  worship,  now  practised  at  Wittenberg,  made 
into  a  law  for  all  evangelical  brethren  without  distinction. 
He  gave  an  account  and  estimate  of  them  in  the  form  of  a 
letter  to  his  friend  Hausmann,  the  priest  at  Zwickau,  '  con- 
juring '  his  readers  '  from  his  very  heart,  for  Christ's  sake,' 
that  if  anyone  saw  plainly  a  better  w^ay  in  these  matters, 
he  should  make  it  known.  No  one,  he  declared,  durst  con- 
demn or  despise  different  forms  practised  by  others.  Out- 
ward customs  and  ceremonies  were,  indeed,  indispensable,  but 
they  served  as  little  to  commend  us  to  God,  as  meat  or  drink 
(1  Cor.  viii.  8)  served  to  make  us  well  pleasing  before  Him. 


FURTHER    WORK  OF  REFORMATION.  295 

In  order  to  enable  the  congregations  themselves  to  take 
an  active  part  in  the  service,  he  now  longed  for  genuine 
Church  hymns,  that  is  to  say,  songs  composed  in  the  noble 
popular  language,  verse,  and  melody.  He  invited  friends  to 
paraphrase  the  Psalms  for  this  purpose  ;  he  had  not  sufiS- 
cient  confidence  in  himself  for  the  work.  And  yet  he  was 
the  first  to  attempt  it.  With  fresh  impulse  and  with  the 
exuberance  of  true  poetical  genius,  his  verses  on  the  Brussels 
martyrs  had  flowed  forth  spontaneously  from  his  inmost 
soul.  They  were  the  first,  so  far  as  we  know,  that  Luther 
had  ever  written,  though  he  was  now  forty  years  of  age. 
With  the  same  poetic  impulse  he  composed,  probably  shortly 
after,  a  hymn  in  praise  of  the  '  highest  blessing '  that  God 
had  shown  towards  us  in  the  sacrifice  of  His  beloved  Son. 

Eejoice  ye  now,  dear  Christians  all, 

And  let  us  leap  for  joy, 

And  dare  with  trustful,  loving  hearts. 

Our  praises  to  employ, 

And  sing  what  God  hath  shown  to  man, 

His  s,weet  and  wondrous  deed. 

And  tell  how  dearly  He  hath  won.  etc. 


The  full  tone  of  a  powerful,  fresh,  often  uncouth,  but  very 
tender  popular  ballad  no  other  writer  of  the  time  displayed 
like  Luther.  And  whilst  seeking  to  compose  or  re-arrange 
hymns  for  congregational  use  in  church,  he  now  busied 
himself  with  the  Psalter,  paraphrasing  its  contents  in  an 
evangelical  spirit  and  in  German  metre. 

Thus  now,  early  in  1524,  there  appeared  at  Wittenberg 
the  first  German  hymn-book,  consisting  at  first,  of  only  eight 
hjonns,  about  half  of  them,  such  as  that  beginning  Nun 
freut  euch,  being  original  compositions  of  Luther,  and  three 
others  adapted  from  the  Psalms.  In  the  course  of  the  same 
year  he  brought  out  a  further  collection  of  twenty  hymns, 
written  by  himself  for  the  evangelical  congregation  there : 
among  these  is  the  one  on  the  Brussels  martyrs.     It  was,  in 


296  EXILE,   RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

fact,   the    year   in   ^vhich   German    hjmnody   was    born. 
Luther  soon  found  the  coadjutors  he  had  wished  for. 

These  twenty-four  hymns  by  Luther  were  followed  in 
after  years  by  only  twelve  more  from  his  own  pen,  among 
the  latter  being  his  grand  hymn,  Bin"  feste  Burg  ist  unser 
Gott,  written  probably  in  1 527.  Of  these  later  compositions, 
comparatively  few  expressed  entirely  his  own  ideas ;  most 
of  them  had  reference  to  subjects  already  in  the  possession 
and  use  of  the  Christian  world,  and  of  German  Christians 
in  particular ;  that  is  to  say,  some  referred  to  the  Psalms 
and  other  portions  of  the  Bible,  others  to  parts  of  the 
Catechism,  others  again  to  short  German  ballads,  sung  by 
the  people,  and  even  to  old  Latin  hymns.  In  all  of  them 
he  was  governed  by  a  strict  regard  to  what  was  both  purely 
evangelical,  and  also  suitable  for  the  common  worship  of 
God.  And  yet  they  differ  widely,  one  from  another,  in  the 
poetical  form  and  manner  in  which  he  now  gives  utterance 
to  the  longings  of  the  heart  for  God,  now  seeks  to  clothe  in 
verse  suited  for  congregational  singing  words  of  behef  and 
doctrine,  now  keeps  closely  to  his  immediate  subject,  now 
vents  his  emotions  freely  in  Christian  sentiments  and 
poetical  form,  as  for  example  in  Ein  fcst£  Burg,  the  most 
sublime  and  powerful  production  of  them  all. 

The  new  hymns  went  forth  in  town  and  country,  in 
churches  and  homes,  throughout  the  land.  Often,  far  more 
than  any  sermons  could  have  done,  they  brought  home  to 
ears  and  hearts  the  Word  of  evangeHcal  truth.  They 
became  weapons  of  war,  as  well  as  means  of  edification  and 
comfort. 

Li  his  preface  to  a  small  collection  of  songs,  which 
Luther  had  pubhshed  in  the  same  year,  he  remarks  :  '  I  am 
not  of  opinion  that  the  gospel  should  be  employed  to  strike 
down  and  destroy  all  the  arts,  as  certain  high  ecclesiastics 
would  have  it.  I  would  rather  that  all  the  arts,  and 
especially  music,  should  be  employed  in  the  service  of  Him 
who  has  created  them  and  given  them  to  man.'    What  he  says 


FURTHER    WORK  OF  REFORMATION.  297 

here  about  music  and  poetry,  lie  applied  equally  to  all 
departments  of  knowledge.  He  saw  art  and  learning  now 
menaced  ])y  wrong-minded  enthusiasts.  For  this  reason  he 
was  particularly  anxious  that  they  should  be  cultivated  in 
the  schools. 

With  great  zeal  he  directed  his  counsels  to  the  general 
duty  of  caring  for  the  good  education  and  instruction  of 
the  young,  as  indeed  he  had  done  some  time  before  in  his 
address  to  the  German  NobiUty.  These,  above  all,  he  said, 
must  be  rescued  from  the  clutches  of  Satan.  He  had  again 
in  his  mind  schools  for  girls.  Thus  in  1523  he  recom- 
mended the  conversion  of  the  cloisters  of  the  Mendicant 
Orders  into  schools  '  for  boys  and  girls.'  The  same  advice 
was  offered  by  Eberlin,  already  mentioned,  who  was  then 
living  at  Wittenberg,  and  who  made  the  suggestion  to  the 
magistrates  of  Ulm. 

But  Luther's  chief  advice  was  directed  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  Church  and  the  State,  or  '  temporal  govern- 
ment,' which  assuredly  were  then  in  need  of  educated  and 
well-cultured  servants.  For  the  training  here  requked,  the 
ancient  languages,  Latin  and  Greek,  were  indispensable,  and 
for  the  ministers  of  the  Church,  Greek  and  Hebrew  in  par- 
ticular, as  the  languages  in  which  the  Word  of  God  was 
originally  conveyed  to  man.  '  Languages,'  he  says,  *  are 
the  sheaths  which  enclose  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  the 
shrine  in  which  this  treasure  is  carried,  the  vessel  which 
contains  this  drink.'  He  insisted  further  on  the  study  of 
history,  and  especially  of  that  of  Germany.  It  was  a 
matter  of  regret  to  him  that  so  little  had  been  done  towards 
writing  the  history  of  Germany,  whilst  the  Greeks,  the 
Komans,  and  the  Hebrews  had  compiled  theirs  with  such 
industry.  '  0  !  how  many  good  histories  and  sayings,'  he 
remarked,  '  we  ought  to  have  in  our  possession,  of  all  that 
has  been  done  and  said  in  different  parts  of  Germany,  and 
of  which  we  know  nothing.  That  is  why,  in  other  coun- 
tries, people  know  nothing   about   us  Germans,    and   all 


298  EXILE,   RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

the  world  calls  us  German  beasts,  who  can  do  nothmg  but 
fight,  and  guzzle,  and  drink.'  Such  were  his  opinions,  as 
given  in  1524,  in  a  public  letter  '  To  the  Councillors  of 
all  the  States  of  Germany;  an  appeal  to  institute  and 
maintain  Christian  schools.' 

The  enthusiasm  which  had  recently  inspired  young  men  of 
talent  and  ambition  to  study  and  imitate  the  ancient  classics, 
and  had  banded  together  the  leading  teachers  of  Humanism, 
very  quickly  died  away.  The  universities  everywhere  were 
less  frequented.  Enemies  of  Luther  ascribed  this  to  the 
influence  of  his  doctrines,  though  matters  were  little  better 
where  his  doctrines  were  repudiated.  It  is  not,  indeed, 
surprising  that  the  Humanist  movement,  with  its  regard  for 
formal  culture  and  aesthetic  enjoyment,  and  its  aristocracy 
of  intellect,  should  reth-e  perforce  before  the  supreme 
struggle,  involving  the  highest  issues  and  interests  of  life, 
which  was  now  being  waged  by  the  German  people  and  the 
Church.  A  further  cause  of  this  decline  of  academical 
studies  was  to  be  found,  no  doubt,  in  the  vigorous,  and  some- 
what giddy  bound  taken  by  trade  and  commerce  in  those 
days  of  increased  communication  and  extensive  geographical 
discovery,  and  in  the  striving  after  material  gain  and  enjoy- 
ment, which  seemed  to  find  satisfaction  in  other  ways  more 
easily  and  rapidly  than  by  learned  industry  and  the  pursuit  of 
culture.  It  was  from  these  quarters  that  came  the  complaints 
against  the  great  merchants'  houses,  the  usury,  the  rise  in 
prices,  the  luxury  and  extravagance  of  the  age, — complaints 
which  were  re-echoed  alike  by  the  friends  and  foes  of  the  Re- 
formation. The  Reformers  themselves  fully  recognised  the 
thanks  they  owed  to  those  Humanistic  studies,  and  their 
permanent  value  for  Church  and  State.  In  the  new  church 
regulations  introduced  in  the  towns  and  districife  which 
accepted  the  evangelical  teaching,  the  school  system  then 
played  a  prominent  part.  Nuremberg,  some  years  after,  was 
among  the  most  active  to  establish  a  good  high  school. 
Luther  himself  went  in  April  1525  with  Melancthon  to  his 


FURTHER    WORK  OF  REFORMATION.  299 

native  place  Eisleben,  to  assist  in  promoting  a  school, 
founded  there  by  Count  Albert  of  Mansfeld  :  his  friend 
Agricola  was  the  head  master. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  work  of  planting  and  building 
occupied  Luther  at  this  time  more  than  the  contest  with  his 
old  opponents.  Well  might  he,  as  he  says  in  his  hjnun, 
rejoice  to  see  the  spring-tide  and  the  flowers,  and  hope  for 
a  rich  summer. 

On  the  other  hand,  not  only  did  the  adherents  of  the 
old  system  knit  their  ranks  together  more  closely,  and,  like 
the  confederates  of  Eatisbon  in  1524,  profess  their  desire 
to  do  something  at  least  to  satisfy  the  general  complaint  of 
the  corruption  of  the  Church;  but  men  even,  who  from 
their  undeniably  deep  and  earnest  striving  for  religion, 
seemed  originally  called  to  take  part  in  the  work  and  war, 
now  separated  themselves  from  Luther  and  his  associates, 
not  venturmg  to  break  free  from  the  bonds  of  old  ecclesias- 
tical tradition.  Still  more  was  this  the  case  with  men  of 
Humanistic  culture,  whose  temporary  alliance  with  Luther 
had  been  dictated  more  by  the  interest  they  felt  in  the 
arts  and  letters  threatened  by  the  old  monastic  spirit,  and 
by  the  open  scandal  caused  by  the  outrageous  abuses  of  the 
clergy  and  monachism,  than  by  any  sympathy  with  his 
religious  principles  and  ideas.  And  to  those  who  wavered 
in  so  momentous  a  decision,  and  shrank  back  from  it  and 
the  contests  it  involved,  there  was  plenty  in  what  they 
observed  among  Luther's  adherents,  to  give  them  occasion 
for  still  further  reflection.  It  w^as  not  to  be  denied  that, 
sharply  as  Luther  had  reproved  the  conduct  of  the  Witten- 
berg innovators,  the  new  preaching  gave  rise  among  excited 
multitudes,  in  many  places,  to  disturbance,  disorder,  and 
acts  of  violence  against  obstinate  monks  and  priests  ;  and  all 
this  was  held  up  as  a  proof  of  what  the  consequences  must 
be  of  a  general  dissolution  of  religious  ties.  The  desertion 
of  their  convents  by  monks  and  nuns,  ostensibly  on  the 
ground  of  their  newly-proclaimed  liberty,  but  in  reality,  for 


30O  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

the  most  part,  as  was  alleged  against  them  by  the  Catholics, 
for  the  sake  of  carnal  fi^eedom,  was  denounced  with  no  small 
severity  by  Luther  himself ;  but,  in  so  doing,  he  recalled  to 
mind  the  fact,  that  equally  low  interests  had  led  them  into 
the  convents,  and  that  the  cloisters  also,  after  their  fashion, 
indulged  in  the  '  worship  of  the  belly.'  Luther  was  just  as 
indignant  that  the  great  majority  of  those  who  refused  to  be 
robbed  any  longer  of  theh  money  and  goods  at  the  demand 
and  by  the  deceits  of  the  Papal  Church,  now  withheld  them 
both  from  serving  the  objects  of  Christian  love  and  benevo- 
lence, which  they  were  all  the  more  called  on  to  promote. 
The  enemies  of  the  new  doctrine  began  already  to  charge 
against  it  that  the  faith,  which  was  supposed  to  make  men 
so  blessed,  bore  so  little  good  fruit.  Lastly,  there  were  many 
honest=minded  men,  and  many,  also,  who  looked  about  for  an 
excuse  for  abstaining  from  the  battle,  whom  Luther's  per- 
sonal participation  in  the  din  and  clamour  of  the  fray  served 
to  scandalise,  if  not  to  ahenate  fi'om  his  cause.  Thus  among 
those  who  had  formerly  been  united  by  a  common  endea- 
vour to  improve  the  condition  of  the  Church  and  repel  the 
tyranny  of  Kome,  a  crisis  had  now  begun. 

Of  all  who  drew  back  from  Luther's  work  of  reformation, 
none  had  been  more  intimately  attached  to  him  than  his 
spu'itual  father,  Staupitz.  And  this  intimacy  he  retained 
as  Abbot  of  Salzburg.  In  his  view,  nothing  of  all  the  ex- 
ternal matters  to  which  the  Eeformation  was  directed, 
seemed  so  important  as  to  warrant  the  endangerment  of  re- 
ligious concord  and  unity  in  the  Church.  Luther  expressed 
to  him  the  sorrow  he  felt  at  his  estrangement,  while  renew- 
ing, at  the  same  time,  his  assurance  of  unalterable  affection 
and  gratitude.  Staupitz  himself  felt  unhappy  in  his 
attitude  and  position.  But  even  as  abbot,  and  in  tue 
proximity  of  the  Archbishop  of  Salzburg,  a  man  of  very 
different  views  and  temperament  to  himself,  he  remained 
true  to  his  doctrine  of  Faith,  as  being  the  only  means  of 
salvation   and  the   root   of  all  goodness.     And   the   very 


FURTHER    WORK  OF  REFORMATION.  301 

last  year  of  bis  life,  in  a  letter  to  Luther,  recommending  to 
him  a  young  theologian  who  was  about  to  further  his 
education  at  Wittenberg,  he  assured  him  of  his  unchanging 
love,  '  passing  the  love  of  women '  (2  Sam.  i.  26),  and  grate- 
fully acknowledged  how  his  beloved  Martin  had  first  led  him 
away  *  to  the  living  pastures  from  the  husks  for  the  pigs.' 
Luther  gave  a  friendly  welcome  to  the  young  man  recom- 
mended to  his  care,  and  assisted  him  in  gaining  the  desired 
degree  of  Master  of  Philosophy.  This  is  the  last  that  we 
hear  of  the  intercourse  between  these  two  friends.  On 
December  28,  1524,  Staupitz  died  from  a  fit  of  apoplexy. 

The  earlier  acquaintance  between  the  Reformer  and  the 
great  Humanist,  Erasmus,  had  now  developed  into  an 
irreconcilable  enmity.  The  latter  had  long  been  unable  to 
refrain  from  venting,  in  private  and  public  utterances,  his 
dissatisfaction  and  bitterness  at  the  storm  aroused  by 
Luther,  which  was  distracting  the  Church  and  disturbing 
quiet  study.  Patrons  of  his  in  high  places  — above  all.  King 
Henry  VIII.  of  England — urged  him  to  take  up  the  cause 
of  the  Chm'ch  against  Luther  in  a  pamphlet ;  and,  diflScult 
as  he  felt  it  to  take  a  prominent  part  in  such  a  contest,  he 
was  the  less  able  to  decline  their  overtures,  since  other 
Churchmen  were  reproaching  him  with  having  furthered  by 
his  earlier  writings  the  pernicious  movement.  He  chose  a 
subject  which  would  enable  him,  at  any  rate,  while  attacking 
Luther,  to  represent  his  own  personal  convictions,  and  to 
reckon  on  the  concurrence  not  only  of  Eomish  zealots  but 
also  of  a  number  of  his  Humanist  friends,  and  even  many 
men  of  deeply  moral  and  religious  disposition.  Luther,  it 
will  be  remembered,  had  told  him  plainly  from  the  first  that 
he  knew  too  little  of  the  grace  of  God,  which  alone  could 
give  salvation  to  sinners,  and  strength  and  ability  to  the 
good.  Erasmus  now  retorted  by  his  diatrilie  '  On  Free 
Will,'  by  virtue  whereof,  he  said,  man  was  able  and  was 
bound  to  procure  his  own  blessing  and  final  happiness. 

Luther,  on  perusmg  this  treatise,  in  September  1524, 


302  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

was  struck  with  the  feebleness  of  its  contents.  So  far, 
indeed,  from  defining  the  operation  of  the  human  will, 
Erasmus  floated  vaguely  about  in  loose  and  incoherent  pro- 
positions, evidently  not  from  want  of  extreme  care  and 
circumspection,  but  from  the  fact  that,  in  this  province  of 
antiquarian  research,  he  failed  in  the  necessary  acuteness 
and  depth  of  observation  and  thought.  He  declared  him- 
self rea.dy  to  yield  obedience  to  all  decisions  of  the  Church, 
but  without  expressing  any  opinion  as  to  the  real  infallibility 
of  an  ecclesiastical  tribunal.  Throughout  his  whole  treatise, 
however,  there  were  personal  thrusts  at  his  enemy. 

Luther,  as  he  said,  only  wished  to  answer  this  diatribe 
out  of  regard  to  the  position  enjoyed  by  its  author,  and, 
from  his  sheer  aversion  to  the  book,  for  a  long  whue  post- 
poned his  reply.  We  shall  see  moreover,  very  shortly,  what 
other  pressing  duties  and  events  engrossed  his  attention  for 
some  time  after.  It  was  not  until  a  year  had  elapsed,  that 
his  reply  appeared,  entitled  *  On  the  Bondage  of  the  Will.' 
Herein  he  pushes  the  propositions  to  which  Erasmus  took 
exception  to  their  logical  conclusion.  Eree  Will,  as  it  is 
called,  has  always  been  subject  to  the  supremacy  of  a  higher 
Power  ;  with  unredeemed  sinners  to  the  power  of  the  devu  ; 
with  the  redeemed,  to  the  saving,  sanctifying,  and  shelter- 
ing Hand  of  God.  Eor  the  latter,  salvation  is  assured  by 
His  Almighty  and  grace-conferring  Will.  The  fact  that  in 
other  sinners  no  such  conversion  to  God  and  to  a  redeem- 
ing faith  in  His  Word  is  effected,  can  only  be  ascribed  to 
the  inscrutable  Will  of  God  Himself,  nor  durst  man  dispute 
thereon  with  his  Maker.  Luther  in  this  went  further  than 
did  afterwards  the  Evangelical  Church  that  bears  his  name. 
And  even  be,  later  on,  abstained  himself  and  warned  others 
to  abstain  from  discussing  such  Divine  mysteries  and 
questions  connected  with  them.  But  as  for  Erasmus,  he 
never  ceased  to  regard  him  as  one  who,  from  his  superficial 
worldliness,  was  blind  to  the  highest  truth  of  salvation. 

In  respect  to  the  battle  against  Catholic  Churchdom  and 


FURTHER    WORK  OF  REFORMATION.  303 

dogma,  the  controversy  between  Luther  and  Erasmus  pre- 
sents no  new  issue  or  further  development.  But  in  company 
with  then'  old  master,  other  Humanists  also,  the  leading 
champions  of  the  general  culture  of  the  age,  dissociated 
themselves  from  Luther,  and  returned,  as  his  enemies,  to 
their  allegiance  to  the  traditional  system  of  the  Chm'ch. 
Next  to  Erasmus,  the  most  important  of  these  men  was 
Pirkheimer  of  Nuremberg,  to  whom  we  have  already 
referred. 


304  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 


CHAPTEE  V. 

THE   REFORMER   AGAINST    THE   FANATICS   AND    PEASANTS 
UP   TO    1525. 

In  his  new  as  in  his  old  contests,  Luther's  experiences 
remained  such  as  he  described  them  to  Hartmuth  of 
Kronberg,  on  his  return  to  Wittenberg.  '  All  my  enemies, 
near  as  they  have  reached  me,  have  not  hit  me  as  hard  as 
I  have  now  been  hit  by  our  own  people.' 

At  first,  indeed,  Carlstadt  kept  silent,  and  continued 
quietly,  till  Easter  1523,  his  lectures  at  the  university. 
But  inwardly  he  was  incHned  to  a  mysticism  resembling 
that  of  the  Zwickau  fanatics,  and  imbibed,  like  theu's, 
from  mediaeval  T\Titings  ;  and  he  too,  soon  turned,  with 
these  views,  to  new  and  practical  projects  of  reform. 

He  now  began  to  unfold  in  writing  his  ideas  of  a  true 
union  of  the  soul  with  God.  He  too  explained  how  the 
souls  of  all  creatures  should  empty  themselves,  so  to  speak, 
and  prepare  themselves  in  absolute  passiveness,  in  '  in- 
action and  lassitude,'  for  a  glorified  state.  His  profession 
of  learning,  and  his  academical  and  clerical  dignities  he 
resigned,  as  ministering  to  vanity.  He  bought  a  small 
property  near  Wittenberg,  and  repaired  thither  to  live  as  a 
layman  and  peasant.  He  wore  a  peasant's  coat,  and  mixed 
with  the  other  peasants  as  '  Neighbour  Andrew.'  Luther 
saw  him  there,  standing  with  bare  feet  amid  heaps  of 
manure,  and  loading  it  on  a  cart. 

He  found  a  place  for  the  exercise  of  his  new  work  in 
the  church  at  Orlamiinde  on  the  Saale,  above  Jena.  This 
parish,  like  several  others,  had  been  incorporated  with  the 


THE  FANATICS  AND   PEASANTS.  305 

university  at  Wittenberg,  and  its  revenues  formed  part  of 
its  endowment,  being  specially  attached  to  the  archdeaconry 
of  the  Convent  Church,  which  was  united  with  Carlstadt's 
professorship.  The  living  there,  with  most  of  its  emolu- 
ments, had  passed  accordingly  to  Carlstadt,  but  the  office 
of  pastor  could  only  be  performed  by  vicars,  as  they  were 
called,  regularly  nominated,  and  appointed  by  the  Elector. 
Carlstadt  now  took  advantage  of  a  vacancy  in  the  office,  to 
go  on  his  own  authority  as  pastor  to  Orlamünde,  without 
wishing  to  resign  his  appointment  and  its  pay  at  Witten- 
berg. By  his  preaching  and  personal  influence  he  soon 
won  over  the  local  congregation  to  his  side,  and  ended  by 
gaining  as  gi'eat  an  influence  here  as  he  had  done  at 
Wittenberg.  Here  also  the  images  were  abolished  and 
destroyed,  crucifixes  and  other  representations  of  Christ 
no  less  than  images  of  the  saints.  Carlstadt  now  openly 
declared  that  no  respect  was  to  be  paid  to  any  local 
authority,  nor  any  regard  to  other  congregations;  they 
were  to  execute  freely  the  commands  of  God,  and  whatever 
was  contrary  to  God,  they  were  to  cast  down  and  hew  to 
pieces.  And  in  interpreting  and  applying  these  commands 
of  God  he  went  to  more  extravagant  lengths  than  ever. 
Must  not  the  letter  of  the  Old  Testament  be  the  law  for 
other  things  as  well  as  images  ?  Acting  on  this  idea,  he 
demanded  that  Sunday  should  be  observed  with  rest  in  all 
the  Mosaic  rigour  of  the  term ;  this  rest  he  identified  with 
that  ' inaction,'  which  formed  his  idea  of  true  union  with 
God.  He  proceeded  then  to  advocate  polygamy,  as  per- 
mitted to  the  Jews  in  the  Old  Testament:  he  actually 
advised  an  inhabitant  of  Orlamünde  to  take  a  second  wife, 
in  addition  to  the  one  then  living.  He  began,  at  the  same 
time,  to  dispute  the  real  presence  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of 
Christ  in  the  Sacrament — a  doctrine  which  Luther  stead- 
fastly insisted  on  in  his  contest  with  the  Catholic  doctrine 
of  Transubstantiation.  By  an  extraordinary  perversion,  as 
is  evident  at  a  glance,  of  the  meaning  of  Christ's  words  of 

X 


3o6  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

institution,  he  maintained  that  when  our  Saviour  said 
'  This  is  My  Body,' — alluding,  of  course,  to  the  bread  which 
He  was  then  distributing.  He  was  not  referring  to  the  bread 
at  all,  but  only  to  His  own  body,  as  He  stood  there. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  neighbouring  town  of  Kahla 
were  seized  with  the  same  spuit.  These  mystical  ideas 
and  phrases  assumed  strange  forms  of  expression  among 
the  common  people,  who  jumbled  together  in  wild  confusion 
the  supernatm-al  and  the  material.  Carlstadt  kept  up  also 
a  secret  correspondence  with  Münzer. 

The  question  of  the  authority  of  the  Old  Testament 
soon  took  a  wider  range.  It  seemed  to  be  one  of  the 
authority  of  Scripture  in  general,  which  was  contended 
for  against  the  Papists.  If  the  authority  of  God's  Word  in 
the  Old  Testament  applied  to  the  whole  domain  of  civil 
life,  should  it  not  equally  apply,  as  against  particular 
regulations  established  by  civil  society?  On  these  prin- 
ciples, for  example,  all  taking  of  interest,  as  well  as  usury, 
was  declared  to  be  forbidden,  just  as  it  had  been  forbidden 
to  God's  people  of  old.  K  restoration  of  the  Mosaic  year 
of  Jubilee  was  even  talked  of,  when  after  fifty  years  aU  land 
which  had  passed  into  other  hands  should  revert  to  its 
original  owners.  With  eagerness  the  people  took  up  these 
new  ideas  of  social  reform,  so  specious  and  so  full  of 
promises.  The  evangelical  and  earnest  preacher,  Strauss 
at  Eisenach,  worked  zealously  with  word  and  pen  in  this 
direction.  Even  a  court-preacher  of  Duke  John,  Wolfgang 
Stein  at  Weimar,  espoused  the  movement. 

Meanwhile  Münzer  came  again  to  Central  Germany. 
He  had  succeeded,  at  Easter  1523,  in  obtaining  the  office  of 
pastor  at  Allstedt,  a  small  town  in  a  lateral  valley  of  the 
Unstrut.  In  him,  more  than  in  any  other,  the  spirit  of 
the  Zwickau  prophets  fermented  with  full  force,  and  was 
preparing  for  a  violent  outburst.  Alone,  in  the  room  of  a 
church  tower,  he  held  secret  intercourse  with  his  God,  and 
boast sd  of  his  answers  and  revelations.     He  affected  the 


THE  FANATICS  AND  PEASANTS.  307 

appearance  and  demeanour  of  a  man  whose  soul  was 
absorbed  in  tranquillity,  devoid  of  all  finite  ideas  or  aspira- 
tions, and  open  and  free  to  receive  God's  Spirit  and  inner 
Word.  More  violently  than  even  the  champions  of  Catholic 
asceticism,  he  reproached  Luther  for  leading  a  comfortable, 
carnal  life  But  his  whole  energies  were  directed  to  estab- 
lishing a  Kingdom  of  the  Saints,— an  external  one,  with  ex- 
ternal power  and  splendour.  His  preaching  dwelt  incessantly 
on  the  duty  of  destroying  and  killing  the  ungodly,  and 
especially  all  tyrants.  He  wished  to  see  a  practical  appli- 
cation given  to  the  words  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation, 
commanding  God's  people  to  destroy  the  heathen  nations 
from  out  of  the  promised  land,  to  overthrow  their  altars, 
and  burn  their  graven  images  with  fire.  Community  of 
property  was  to  be  a  particular  institution  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  the  property  being  distributed  to  each  man 
according  to  his  need :  whatever  prince  or  lord  refused 
to  do  this,  was  to  be  hanged  or  beheaded.  Meanwhile, 
Münzer  sought  by  means  of  secret  emissaries  in  all  direc- 
tions to  enlist  the  saints  into  a  secret  confederacy.  His 
chief  associate  was  the  former  monk,  Pfeifer  at  Mühlhausen, 
not  far  from  Allstedt.  The  Orlamündians,  however,  whom 
also  he  endeavoured  to  seduce  to  his  policy  of  violence, 
would  have  nothing  to  say  to  such  overtures. 

The  Elector  Frederick  even  now  came  only  tardily  to 
the  resolve,  to  interpose,  in  these  ecclesiastical  matters  and 
disputes,  his  authority  as  sovereign,  nor  did  Luther  himself 
desh-e  his  intervention  so  long  as  the  struggle  was  one  of 
minds  about  the  truth.  Duke  John  had  been  strongly 
influenced  by  the  ideas  of  his  court-preacher.  The  princes 
still  hoped  to  be  able  to  restore  peace  between  Luther  and 
his  colleague,  Carlstadt,  who,  with  all  his  misty  projects, 
was  still  of  importance  as  a  theologian. 

Carlstadt  consented,  indeed,  at  Easter  in  1524,  to  resume 
quietly  his  duties  at  Wittenberg  university.     But  he  soon 

X  2 


3o8  EXILE,   RETURN,   AND  MARRIAGE. 

returned  to  Orlamünde,  to  re-assert  his  position  there  as 
head  and  reformer  of  the  Church. 

"With  regard  to  the  question  of  Mosaic  and  civil  law, 
Luther  was  now  invited  by  John  Frederick,  the  son  of  Duke 
John,  to  express  his  opinion.  It  is  easy  to  conceive  how 
this  question  might  present,  even  to  upright  and  calm- 
judging  adherents  of  the  evangelical  preaching,  considera- 
tions of  difficulty  and  much  inward  doubt.  It  had  cropped 
up  as  a  novelty,  and,  as  it  seemed,  in  necessary  connection 
with  this  preaching :  moreover,  on  its  answer  depended  a 
revolution  of  all  ordinances  of  State  and  society,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  command  of  God. 

Luther's  views  on  this  subject,  however,  were  perfectly 
clear,  and  he  expressed  himself  accordingly.  In  his  opinion, 
the  answer  had  been  given  by  the  keynote  of  evangelical 
teaching.  It  lay  in  the  distinction  between  spiritual  and 
temporal  government,  the  essential  features  of  which  he 
had  already  explained  in  1523  in  his  treatise  '  On  the  Secular 
Power.'  The  life  of  the  soul  in  God,  its  reconciliation  and 
redemption,  its  relations  and  duty  to  God  and  fellow-man 
in  faith  and  love— these  are  the  subjects  dealt  with  in  the 
gospel  message  of  salvation,  or  the  biblical  revelation  in  its 
completeness.  God  has  left  to  the  practical  understanding 
and  needs  of  man,  and  to  the  historical  development  of 
peoples  and  states  under  His  overruling  providence,  the 
arrangement  of  forms  of  law  for  social  life,  without  the 
necessity  of  any  special  revelation  for  that  purpose.  It  is 
the  duty  of  the  secular  power  to  administer  the  existing 
laws,  and  to  make  new  ones  in  a  proper  and  legal  manner, 
according  as  they  may  think  fit.  That  God  prescribed  to 
the  people  of  Israel  external,  civil  ordinances  by  the  mouth 
of  Moses,  was  part  of  His  scheme  of  education.  Christians 
are  not  bound  by  these  ordinances, — no  more,  indeed,  than 
is  their  inner  Hfe  and  right  conduct  made  conditional  on 
outward  rules  and  forms.  Moral  commands  alone  belong 
to  that  part  of  the  Mosaic  law  whereof  the  sanction  is 


THE  FANATICS  AND  PEASANTS.  309 

eternal ;  and  to  the  fulfilment  of  these  commands,  written, 
as  St.  Paul  says,  from  the  beginning  on  the  hearts  of  men, 
the  Spii'it  of  God  now  urges  His  redeemed  people.  No  doubt 
the  law  of  Moses,  in  regard  to  civil  life,  might  contain  much 
that  would  be  useful  for  other  peoples  also  in  that  respect. 
But  it  would,  in  that  case,  be  the  business  of  the  powers 
that  be  to  examine  and  borrow  from  it,  just  as  Germany 
borrowed  her  civil  law  from  the  Komans. 

Such,  briefly  stated,  are  the  views  which  Luther  enun- 
ciated with  clearness  and  consistency,  in  his  wi'itings  and 
sermons.  He  guards  the  civil  power  as  jealously  now  against 
an  irregular  assertion  of  religious  principles  and  biblical 
authority,  as  he  had  formerly  done  against  the  aggressions 
of  an  ecclesiastical  hierarchy,  while  at  the  same  time  he 
defends  the  religious  life  of  Christians  against  the  dangers 
and  afflictions  w4iich  that  hierarchy  threatened.  Thus  he 
answered  the  prince,  on  June  18,  1524,  to  this  effect : 
Temporal  laws  are  something  external,  like  eating  and 
drinking,  house  and  clothing.  At  present  the  laws  of  the 
Empire  have  to  be  maintained,  and  faith  and  love  can  co- 
exist with  them  very  well.  If  ever  the  zealots  of  the  Mosaic 
law  become  Emperors,  and  govern  the  world  as  their  own, 
they  may  choose,  if  they  please,  the  law  of  Moses;  but 
Christians  at  all  times  are  bound  to  support  the  law  which 
the  civil  authority  imposes. 

In  Münzer  Luther  looked  for  a  near  outbreak  of  the 
Evil  Spii'it.  He  alluded  to  him  in  his  letter  of  June  18,  as  the 
*  Satan  of  Allstedt,'  adding  that  he  thought  he  was  not  yet 
quite  fledged.  He  soon  heard  more  about  him,  namely, 
that  '  his  Spirit  was  going  to  strike  out  with  the  fist.'  On 
this  subject  he  wi'ote  the  next  month  to  the  Elector 
Frederick  and  Duke  John,  and  published  his  letter.  Against 
Münzer's  mere  w^ords— his  preaching  and  his  personal  re- 
vilements — he  was  not  now  concerned  to  defend  himself. 

'  Let  them  boldly  preach,'  he  says,  *  what  they  can 

Let  the  Spirits  rend  and  tear  each  other.     A  few,  perhaps. 


3IO  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE, 

may  be  seduced ;  but  that  happens  in  every  war.  Wherever 
there  is  a  battle  and  fighting,  some  one  must  fall  and  be 
wounded.'  He  repeats  here,  what  he  had  said  before,  that 
Antichrist  should  be  destroyed  *  without  hands,'  and  that 
Christ  contended  with  the  Spirit  of  His  Word.  But  if 
they  really  meant  to  strike  out  with  the  fist,  then  Luther 
would  have  the  prince  say  to  them,  '  Keep  your  fists  quiet, 
for  that  is  our  ofiice,  or  else  leave  the  country.' 

In  August  Luther  came  himself  to  Weimar,  in  obedience 
to  a  wish  expressed  by  the  two  j)rinces.  With  the  courts 
preacher  he  had  come  to  a  friendly  understanding.  Münzer 
had  just  left  Allstedt,  an  oificial  report  of  his  dangerous 
proceedings  having  been  forwarded  from  there  to  Weimar, 
whither  he  was  summoned  for  an  examination  and  inquiry. 
On  August  14  Luther  wrote  from  this  town  to  the  magistrate 
of  Mühlhausen,  where  Münzer,  as  he  heard,  had  taken  refuge 
and  had  already  mustered  a  party.  He  warned  the  people 
of  Mühlhausen  to  wait  at  least  before  receiving  Münzer, 
until  they  had  heard  '  what  sort  of  children  he  and  his 
followers  were.'  They  would  not  remain  long  in  the  dark 
about  him.  He  was  a  tree,  as  he  had  shown  at  Zwickau 
and  Allstedt,  which  bore  no  fruit  but  murder  and  re- 
bellion. 

From  Weimar  Luther  travelled  on  to  Orlamünde.  On 
August  21  he  arrived  at  Jena,  where  a  preacher  named 
Reinhard  was  staying  with  Carlstadt.  Luthei  here 
preached  against  the  *  Spirit  of  Allstedt,'  which  destroyed 
images,  despised  the  sacrament,  and  incited  to  rebellion. 
Carlstadt,  who  was  present  and  heard  the  sermon,  waited 
on  him  afterwards  at  his  lodging,  to  defend  himself  against 
these  charges.  Luther  insisted,  notwithstanding,  that 
Carlstadt  was  *  an  associate  of  the  new  prophets.'  He 
challenged  him  finally  to  abandon  his  intrigues  and  confute 
him  openly  in  writing,  and  the  heated  interview  ended  by 
Carlstadt  promising  to  do  so,  and  by  Luther  giving  him  a 
florin  as  a  pledge  and  token  of  the  bargain. 


THE  FANATICS  AND  PEASANTS. 


,11 


From  Jena  Luther  went  through  Kahla,  where  also  he 
preached,  to  ürlamünde.  The  people  here  had  heen  anxious 
for  a  personal  discussion  with  him,  hut  in  writing  to  him 
for  that  purpose,  had  addressed  him  in  words  as  follows  : 
*  You  despise  all  those  who,  hy  God's  command,  destroy 
dumb  idols,  against  which  you  trump  up  feeble  evidence 
out  of  your  own  head,  and  not  grounded  on  Scripture. 
Your  venturing  thus  publicly  to  slander  us,  members  of 
Christ,  shows  that  you  are  no  member  of  the  real  Christ.' 
The  discussion  he  held  with  them  led  to  no  success,  and 
he  gave  up  any  further  attempt  to  convince  them  ;  for,  as 
he  said,  they  burned  like  a  fire,  as  if  they  longed  to  devour 
him.  On  his  departure  they  pursued  him  with  savage 
shouts  of  execration. 

Carlstadt,  a  few  weeks  later,  was  deprived  of  his  pro- 
fessorship, and  had  to  leave  the  country.  Luther  put  in  a 
word  for  the  people  of  Orlamiinde  as  '  good  simple  folk,' 
who  had  been  seduced  by  a  stronger  will.  But  against 
Carlstadt's  whole  conduct  and  teaching  he  launched  an 
elaborate  attack  in  a  pamphlet,  published  in  two  parts,  at 
the  close  of  1524  and  the  beginning  of  the  following  year. 
It  was  entitled  '  Against  the  Celestial  Prophets,  concerning 
Images  and  the  Sacrament,  &c.,'  with  the  motto  *  Their 
folly  shaU  be  manifest  unto  all  men'  (2  Timothy  iii.  9). 
For  in  Carlstadt  he  sought  to  expose  and  combat  the  same 
spirit  that  dwelt  in  the  Zwickau  prophets  and  in  Münzer, 
and  that  threatened  to  produce  still  worse  results.  If 
Carlstadt,  like  Moses,  was  right  in  teaching  people  to  break 
down  images,  and  in  calling  in  for  this  purpose  the  aid  of 
the  disorderly  f  abble,  instead  of  the  proper  authorities,  then 
the  mob  had  the  power  and  right  to  execute  in  like  manner 
all  the  commands  of  God.  And  the  consequence  and  sequel 
of  this  would  be,  what  was  soon  shown  by  Münzer.  '  It 
will  come  to  this  length,'  says  Luther,  '  that  they  will  have 
to  put  all  ungodly  people  to  death ;  for  so  Moses  (Deut.  vii.), 
when  he  told  the  people  to  break  down  the  images,  com- 


312  EXILE,   RETURN,   AND  MARRIAGE.    • 

manded  them  also  to  kill  without  mercy  all  those  who  had 
made  them  in  the  land  of  Canaan.' 

The  great  storm,  annomiced  and  prepared  hy  the 
'  Spirit  of  Allstedt,'  broke  loose  even  sooner  than  could 
have  been  expected. 

Münzer  had  really  appeared  at  Mühlhausen.  The 
town-council,  however,  were  still  able  to  insist  on  his 
leaving  the  place,  together  with  his  friend  Pfeifer.  He 
then  wandered  about  for  several  weeks  in  the  south-west  of 
Germany,  exciting  disturbance  wherever  he  went.  But  on 
September  13  he  returned  with  Pfeifer  to  Mühlhausen, 
where  he  preached  in  his  wonted  manner,  propounded  to 
the  peojDle  m  the  streets  his  doctrines  and  revelations,  and 
attracted  the  mob  to  his  side,  while  respectable  citizens 
and  members  of  the  magistracy  left  the  town  from  fear  of 
the  mischief  that  was  threatening.  Towards  the  end  of 
February  he  was  offered  a  regular  post  as  pastor,  and  soon 
after  all  the  old  magistrates  were  turned  out  and  others 
more  favourable  to  him  elected  in  then*  place.  The  mul- 
titude raged  against  images  and  convents.  The  peasants 
from  the  neighbourhood  flocked  in,  anxious  for  the  general 
equality  which  was  promised  them.  Luther  wrote  to  a 
friend,  *  Münzer  is  King  and  Emperor  at  Mühlhausen.' 

Meanwhile,  in  Southern  Germany  peasant  insurrections 
had  broken  out  in  various  places  since  the  summer  of  this 
year.  In  itself,  there  was  nothing  novel  in  this.  Pie- 
peatedly  during  the  latter  part  of  the  previous  century,  the 
poor  peasantry  had  risen  and  erected  their  banner,  the 
*  Shoe  of  the  League '  {Bundschuh),  so  called  from  the 
rustic  shoes  which  the  insurgents  wore.  Their  grievances 
were  thb  intolerable  and  ever-growing  burdens,  laid  upon 
them  by  the  lay  and  clerical  magnates,  the  taxes  of  all 
kinds  squeezed  from  them  by  every  ingenious  device,  and 
the  feudal  service  which  they  were  forced  to  perform.  The 
nobles  had,  in  fact,  towards  the  close  of  the  middle  ages, 
usurped  a  much  larger  exercise  of  their  ancient  privileges 


THE   FANATICS   AND   PEASANTS.  313 

against  them,  by  means  partly  of  a  dexterous  manipulation 
of  the  old  Koman  law,  and"  partly  of  the  ignorance  of  that 
law  w^hicli  prevailed  among  their  vassals.  On  the  other  side, 
complaints  were  heard  at  that  time  of  the  insolence  shown 
by  the  wealthier  peasants ;  of  the  luxury,  in  which  they 
tried  to  rival  their  masters  ;  and  of  the  arrogance  and 
defiant  demeanour  of  the  peasantry  in  general.  The 
oppression  endured  by  any  particular  class  of  the  civil 
community  does  not  usually  lead  to  violent  disturbances 
and  outbreaks,  unless  and  until  that  class  is  awakened  to  a 
higher  sense  of  its  own  importance  and  has  acquired  an 
increase  of  power.  The  peasants  found,  moreover,  dis- 
contented spirits  like  themselves  among  the  lower  orders  in 
the  towns,  who  were  avowed  enemies  of  the  upper  classes, 
and  who  complained  bitterly  of  the  hardships  and  oppres- 
sions suffered  by  small  people  at  the  hands  of  the  great 
merchants  and  commercial  companies, — in  a  word,  from 
the  power  of  capital.  Furthermore,  when  once  the  peasants 
rose  in  rebellion  against  their  masters,  the  latter  also,  in- 
cluding the  nobility,  showed  an  inclination  here  and  there 
to  favour  a  general  revolution,  if  only  to  remedy  the  de- 
fects of  their  own  position.  And,  in  truth,  throughout 
the  German  Empu-e  at  that  time  there  was  a  general  move- 
ment pressing  for  a  readjustment  of  the  relations  of  the 
various  classes  to  each  other  and  to  the  Imperial  power. 
Ideas  of  a  total  reconstruction  of  society  and  the  State  had 
penetrated  the  mass  of  the  people,  to  an  extent  never 
known  before. 

Thus  the  way  was  paved,  and  incentives  already  supplied 
for  a  powerful  popular  movement,  apart  altogether  fi'om 
the  question  of  Church  Keform.  And  indeed  this  question 
Luther  was  anxious,  as  we  have  seen,  to  restrict  to  the 
domain  of  spiritual,  as  distinguished  from  secular,  that  is 
to  say,  political  and  civil  action.  It  was  impossible,  how- 
ever, but  that  the  accusations  of  lying,  tyranny,  and 
hostility  to  evangelical  truth,  now  freely  levelled  against  the 


314  EXILE,  RETURN,   AND  MARRIAGE. 

dominant  priesthood  and  the  secular  lords  who  were  perse- 
cuting the  gospel,  should  serve  to  intensify  to  the  utmost  the 
prevailing  bitterness  against  external  oppression.  With  the 
same  firmness  and  decision  with  which  Luther  condemned 
all  disorderly  and  violent  proceedings  in  support  of  the 
gospel,  he  had  also  long  been  warning  its  persecutors  of 
the  inevitable  storm  which  they  would  bring  upon  them- 
selves. Other  evangelical  preachers,  however,  as  for 
instance,  Eberlin  and  Strauss,  mingled  with  then-  popular 
preaching  all  sorts  of  suggestions  of  social  reform.  ^  At  last 
men  went  about  among  the  people,  with  open  or  disguised 
activity,  whose  principles  were  directly  opposed  to  those 
of  Luther,  but  who  proclaimed  themselves,  nevertheless, 
enthusiasts  for  the  gospel  which  he  had  brought  again  to 
light,  or  which,  as  they  pretended,  they  had  been  the  first 
tcT  reveal,  together  with  true  evangelical  liberty.  They 
appealed  to  God's  Word  in  support  of  the  claims  and  griev- 
ances of  the  oppressed  classes ;  they  grasped  their  weapons 
by  virtue  of  the  Divine  law.  Hence  the  peculiar  ardour 
and  energy  that  marked  the  insurrection,  although  the 
enthusiasm,  thus  kindled,  was  united  with  the  utmost 
barbarity  and  licentiousness.  Never  has  Germany  been 
threatened  with  a  revolution  so  vast  and  violent,  or  so  im- 
measurable in  its  possible  results.  On  no  single  man's 
word  did  so  much  depend  as  on  that  of  Luther,  the  genuine 
man  of  the  people. 

The  movement  began  late  in  the  summer  of  1524  in 
^the  Black  Forest  and  Hegau.  After  the  beginning  of  the 
next  year  it  continued  rapidly  to  spread,  and  the  different 
groups  of  insurgents  who  were  fighting  here  and  there, 
combined  in  a  common  plan  of  action.  Like  a  flood  the 
movement  forced  its  way  eastwards  into  Austria,  westwards 
into  Alsatia,  northwards  into  Franconia,  and  even  as  far  as 
Thuringia.  At  Kothenburg  on  the  Tauber,  Carlstadt  had 
prepared  che  way  for  it  by  inciting  the  people  to  destroy 
^.he  images.     The  demands  in  which  the  peasants  were 


THE  FANATICS  AND  PEASANTS.  315 

unanimous,  were  now  drawn  up  in  twelve  articles.  These 
still  preserved  a  very  moderate  aspect.  They  claimed  above 
all  the  right  of  each  parish  to  choose  its  own  minister. 
Tithes  were  only  to  be  abolished  in  part.  The  peasants 
were  determined  to  be  regarded  no  longer  as  the  '  property 
of  others,'  for  Christ  had  redeemed  all  alike  with  his  blood. 
They  demanded  for  everyone  the  right  to  hunt  and  fish, 
because  God  had  given  to  all  men  alike  power  over  the 
animal  creation.  They  based  their  demands  upon  the  Word 
of  God ;  trusting  to  His  promises  they  would  venture  the 
battle.  '  If  we  are.  wrong,'  they  said, '  let  Luther  set  us 
right  by  the  Scriptures.'  God,  who  had  freed  the  children  of 
Israel  from  the  hand  of  Pharaoh,  would  now  shortly  deliver 
His  people.  In  these  articles,  and  in  other  proclamations  of 
the  peasantry,  there  were  none  of  the  wild  imaginations  of 
Münzer  and  his  prophets,  nor  then:  ideas  of  a  kingdom  and 
schemes  of  murder.  They  burned  down,  it  is  true,  both 
convents  and  cities,  and  had  done  so  from  the  outset.  Still 
in  some  places  a  more  peaceable  understanding  was  arrived 
at  with  the  upper  classes,  although  neither  party  placed  any 
real  confidence  in  the  other. 

When  now  the  articles  arrived  at  Wittenberg,  and 
Luther  heard  how  the  insurgents  appealed  to  him,  he  pre- 
pared early  in  April  to  make  a  public  declaration,  in  which 
he  arraigned  their  proceedings,  but  at  the  same  time  ex- 
horted the  princes  to  moderation.  He  was  just  then  called 
away  by  Count  Albert  of  Mansfeld  to  Eisleben,  to  assist,  as 
we  have  seen,  in  the  establishment  of  a  new  school  in  that 
town.  He  set  off  thither  on  Easter  Sunday,  April  16,  after 
preaching  in  the  morning.  There  he  wrote  his  '  Exhortation 
to  peace :  On  the  Twelve  Ai'ticles  of  the  Peasantry  in  Swabia. 

In  this  manifesto  he  sharply  rebukes  those  princes  and 
nobles,  bishops  and  priests,  who  cease  not  to  rage  against 
the  gospel,  and  in  their  temporal  government  'tax  and 
fleece  their  subjects,  for  the  advancement  of  their  own 
pomp  and  pride,  until  the  common  people  can  endure  it  no 


3i6  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

longer.'  If  God  for  their  punishment  allowed  the  devil  to 
stir  up  tumult  against  them,  He  and  his  gospel  were  not  to 
blame ;  but  he  counselled  them  to  try  by  gentle  means 
to  soften,  if  possible,  God's  wrath  against  them.  As  for 
the  peasants,  he  had  never  from  the  first  concealed  from 
them  his  suspicions,  that  many  of  them  only  pretended  to 
appeal  to  Scripture,  and  offered  for  mere  appearance'  sake 
to  be  further  instructed  therein.  But  he  wished  to  speak  to 
them  affectionately,  like  a  friend  and  a  brother,  and  he  ad- 
mitted also  that  godless  lords  often  laid  intolerable  burdens 
upon  the  people.  But  however  much  in  their  articles  might 
be  just  and  reasonable,  the  gospel,  he  said,  had  nothing 
to  do  with  their  demands,  and  by  their  conduct  they  showed 
that  they  had  forgotten  the  law  of  Christ.  For  by  th:5 
Divine  law  it  was  forbidden  to  extort  anything  from  th3 
authorities  by  force  :  the  badness  of  the  latter  was  no  ex- 
cuse for  violence  and  rebellion.  Eespecting  the  substance  of 
their  demands,  their  first  article,  claiming  to  elect  their  own 
pastor,  if  the  civil  authority  refused  to  provide  one,  was 
right  enough  and  Christian ;  but  in  that  case  they  must 
maintain  him  at  their  own  expense,  and  on  no  account 
protect  him  by  force  against  the  civil  power.  As  for  the 
remaining  articles,  they  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with 
the  gospel.  He  tells  the  peasants  plainly,  that  if  they  per- 
sist in  their  rebellion,  they  are  worse  enemies  to  the  gospel 
than  the  Pope  and  Emperor,  for  they  act  against  the  gospel 
in  the  gospel's  own  name.  He  is  bound  to  speak  thus  to 
them,  although  some  among  them,  poisoned  by  fanatics, 
hate  him  and  call  him  a  hypocrite,  and  the  devil,  who  was 
not  able  to  kih  him  through  the  Pope,  would  now  like  to 
destroy  and  devour  him.  He  is  content  if  only  he  can  save 
some  at  least  of  the  good-hearted  among  them  from  the 
danger  of  God's  indignation.  In  conclusion,  he  gives  to 
both  sides,  the  nobles  and  the  peasants,  his  '  faithful  counsel 
and  advice,  that  a  few  counts  and  lords  should  be  chosen 
from  the  nobility,  and  a  few  councillors  from  the  towns,  and 


THE  FANATICS  AND  PEASANTS.  317 

that  matters  should  be  adjusted  and  composed  in  an 
amicable  manner — that  so  the  affair,  if  it  cannot  be  arranged 
in  a  Christian  spirit,  may  at  least  be  settled  according  to 
human  laws  and  agreements.' 

Thus  spoke  Luther,  with  all  his  accustomed  frankness, 
fervency,  power,  and  bluntness,  equally  indifferent  to  the 
favour  of  the  people  or  of  their  rulers.  But  what  fruit, 
indeed,  could  be  looked  for  from  his  words,  uttered  evidently 
with  violent  inward  emotion,  when  popular  passion  was  so 
excited  ?  Was  it  not  rather  to  be  feared  that  the  peasants 
would  greedily  fasten  on  the  first  portion  of  his  pamphlet, 
which  was  dh'ected  against  the  nobles,  and  then  shut  their 
ears  all  the  more  closely  against  the  second,  which  concerned 
their  own  misconduct  ?  The  pamphlet  could  hardly  have 
been  written,  and  much  less  published,  before  new  rumours 
and  forebodings  crowded  upon  Luther,  such  as  made  him 
think  its  contents  and  language  no  longer  applicable  to  the 
emergency,  but  that  now  it  was  his  duty  to  sound  aloud 
the  call  to  battle  against  the  enemies  of  peace  and  order. 
*  In  my  former  tract,'  he  said,  *  I  did  not  venture  to  con- 
demn the  peasants,  because  they  offered  themselves  to 
reason  and  better  instruction.  But  before  I  could  look 
about  me,  forth  they  rush,  and  fight  and  plunder  and  rage 
like  mad  dogs.  .  .  .  The  w^orst  is  at  Mühlhausen,  where 
the  arch-devil  himself  presides.' 

In  South  Germany,  on  that  very  Easter  Sunday  when 
Luther  set  out  for  Eisleben,  the  scene  of  horror  was 
enacted  at  Weinsberg,  where  the  peasants,  amid  the  sound 
of  pipes  and  merriment,  drove  the  unhappy  Count  of  Hel- 
fenstein upon  their  spears,  before  the  eyes  of  his  wdfe  and 
child.  Luther's  ignorance  of  this  and  similar  atrocities, 
at  the  time  when  he  was  writing  his  pamphlet  at  Eisleben, 
is  easily  intelligible  from  the  slow  means  of  communication 
then  existing.  Soon  the  news  came,  however,  of  bands  of 
rioters  in  Thuringia,  busy  with  the  work  of  pillage,  incen- 
diarism, and  massacre,  and  of  a  rising  of  the  peasantry  in 


3i8  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

the  immediate  neighbourhood.  Towards  the  end  of  April 
they  achieved  a  crowning  triumph  by  their  victorious  entry 
into  Erfurt,  where  the  preacher,  EberHn  of  Günzburg, 
with  true  loyalty  and  courage,  but  all  in  vain,  had  striven, 
with  words  of  exhortation  and  warning,  to  pacify  the  armed 
multitude  encamped  outside  the  town,  and  their  sym- 
pathisers and  associates  inside. 

On  April  26  Münzer  advanced  to  Mühlhausen,  the  *  arch- 
devil,'  as  Luther  called  him,  but  as  he  described  himself, 
the  '  champion  of  the  Lord.'  He  came  with  four  hundred 
followers,  and  was  joined  by  large  masses  of  the  peasants. 
His  *  only  fear,'  as  he  said  in  his  summons  to  the  miners  of 
Mansfeld,  '  was  that  the  foolish  men  would  fall  into  the 
snare  of  a  delusive  peace.'  He  promised  them  a  better 
result.  *  Wherever  there  are  only  three  among  you  who 
trust  in  God  and  seek  nothing  but  His  honour  and  glory, 
you  need  not  fear  a  hundred  thousand.  .  .  .  Forward 
now  !  '  he  cried  ;  *  to  work  !  to  work  !  It  is  time  that  th3 
villains  were  chased  away  like  dogs  ...  To  work !  relent 
not  if  Esau  gives  you  fair  words.  Give  no  heed  to  the 
wailings  of  the  ungodly ;  they  will  beg,  weep,  and  entreat 
you  for  pity,  like  children.  Show  them  no  mercy,  as  God 
commanded  Moses  (Dent,  vii.)  and  has  declared  the  same 
to  us.  .  .  .  To  work  !  while  the  fire  is  hot ;  let  not  the 
blood  cool  upon  your  swords.  ...  To  work  !  while  it  is 
day.  God  is  with  you ;  follow  Him !  '  Of  Luther  he 
spoke  in  terms  of  peculiar  hatred  and  contempt.  In  a 
letter  which  he  addressed  to  *  Brother  Albert  of  Mansfeld,' 
with  the  object  of  converting  the  Count,  he  alluded  to  him 
in  expressions  of  the  coarsest  possible  abuse. 

In  Thuringia,  in  the  Harz,  and  elsewhere,  numbers  of 
convents,  and  even  castles,  were  reduced  to  ashes.  The 
princes  were  everywhere  unprepared  with  the  necessary 
troops,  while  the  insurgents  in  Thuringia  and  Saxony 
counted  more  than  30,000  men.  The  former,  therefore,  en- 
deavoured to  strengthen   themselves  by  coalition.     Duke 


THE  FANATICS  AND  PEASANTS.  319 

John,  at  Weimar,  prepared  himself  for  the  worst :  his  brother, 
the  Elector  Frederick,  was  lying  seriously  ill  at  his  Castle 
at  Lochau  (now  Annaburg)  in  the  district  of  Torgau. 

At  this  crisis  Luther,  having  left  Eisleben,  appeared  in 
person  among  the  excited  population.  He  preached  at 
Stolberg,  Nordhausen,  and  Wallhausen.  In  his  subsequent 
writings  he  could  bear  witness  of  himself,  how  he  had  been 
himself  among  the  peasants,  and  how,  more  than  once,  he 
had  imperilled  life  and  limb.  On  May  3  we  und  him  at 
Weimar;  and  a  few  days  afterwards  in  the  county  of 
Mansfeld.  Here  he  wrote  to  his  friend,  the  councillor 
Eühel  of  Mansfeld,  advising  him  not  to  persuade  Count 
Albert  to  be  '  lenient  in  this  affau: ' — that  is,  against  the 
insurgents ;  for  the  civil  power  must  assert  its  rights  and 
duties,  however  God  might  rule  the  issue.  '  Be  firm,'  he 
entreats  Euhel,  'that  his  Grace  may 'go  boldly  on  his  way. 
Leave  the  matter  to  God,  and  fulfil  His  commands  to  wield 
the  sword  as  long  as  strength  endures.  Our  consciences 
are  clear,  even  if  we  are  doomed  to  be  defeated.  ...  It  is 
but  a  short  time,  and  the  righteous  Judge  will  come.' 

Luther  now  hastened  back  to  his  Elector,  having  re- 
ceived a  summons  from  him  at  Lochau.  But  before  he 
could  arrive  there,  Frederick  had  peacefully  breathed  his 
last,  on  May  5.  Faithfully  and  discreetly,  and  in  the 
honest  conviction  that  truth  would  prevail,  he  had  accorded 
Luther  his  favour  and  protection,  whilst  purposely  abstain- 
ing to  employ  his  power  as  ruler  for  infringing  or  invading 
the  old-established  ordinances  of  the  Church.  He  allowed 
full  liberty  of  action  to  the  bishops,  and  carefully  avoided 
any  personal  intercourse  with  Luther.  But  in  the  face  of 
death,  he  confessed  the  truth  of  the  gospel,  as  preached  by 
Luther,  by  partaking  of  the  communion  in  both  kinds,  and 
refusing  the  sacrament  of  extreme  unction. 

When  his  corpse  was  brought  in  state  to  Wittenberg, 
and  buried  in  the  Convent  Church,  Luther,  who  had  to 
preach  twice  on  the  occasion,  spoke  of  the  universal  grief 


320  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

and  lamentation  that  '  our  head  is  fallen,  a  peaceful  man 
and  ruler,  a  calm  head.'  And  he  pointed  out  as  the  '  most 
grievous  sorrow  of  all,'  how  this  loss  had  happened  just  in 
those  difficuk  and  wondrous  times  when,  unless  God  inter- 
posed His  arm,  destruction  threatened  the  whole  of  Ger- 
many. He  exhorted  his  hearers  to  confess  to  God  their 
own  ingratitude  for  His  mercy  in  having  given  them  such 
a  noble  vessel  of  His  grace.  But  of  those  who  set  them- 
selves against  authorities,  he  declared,  in  the  words  of  the 
Apostle  (Kom.  xiii.  2),  that  *  they  shall  receive  to  them- 
selves damnation.'  *  This  text,'  he  said,  *  will  do  more 
than  all  the  guns  and  spears.' 

Quite  in  the  same  spirit  that  dictated  his  letter  sent  to 
Eiihel  only  a  few  days  before  at  Mansfeld,  Luther  now  sent 
forth  a  public  summons  '  Against  the  murderous  and  plun- 
dermg  bands  of  peasants.'  He  began  it  with  the  words 
akeady  quoted,  '  Before  I  could  look  about  me,  forth  they 
rush  .  .   .  and  rage  like  mad  dogs.' 

Thus  he  wrote  when  he  saw  the  danger  was  at  its  highest. 
He  even  suggested  the  possibility  '  that  the  peasants  might 
get  the  upper  hand  (which  God  forbid  !)  ; '  and  that  '  God 
perhaps  willed  that,  in  preparation  for  the  Last  Day,  the 
devil  should  be  allowed  to  destroy  all  order  and  authority, 
and  the  world  turned  into  a  howling  wilderness.'  But  he 
called  upon  the  Christian  authorities,  with  all  the  more 
urgency  and  vehemence,  to  use  the  sword  against  the 
devilish  villains,  as  God  had  given  them  command.  They 
should  leave  the  issue  to  God,  acknowledge  to  Him  that 
they  had  well  deserved  His  judgments,  and  thus  with  a 
good  conscience  and  confidence  '  fight  as  long  as  they  could 
move  a  muscle.'  Whosoever  should  fall  on  then-  side  would 
be  a  true  martyr  in  God's  eyes,  if  he  had  fought  with  such  a 
conscience.  Then,  thinking  of  the  many  better  people  who 
had  been  forced  by  the  bloodthirsty  peasants  and  murderous 
prophets  to  join  the  devilish  confederacy,  he  broke  out  by 
exclaiming,  *  Dear  lords,  help  them,  save  them,  take  pity 


THE  FANATICS  AND  PEASANTS.  32 1 

upon  these  poor  men ;  but  as  to  the  rest,  stab,  crush, 
strangle  whom  you  can.* 

These  words  of  Luther  were  speedily  fulfilled  by  the 
events.  The  Saxon  princes,  the  Landgrave  Philip  of  Hesse, 
the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  and  the  Counts  of  Mansfeld  com- 
bined together  before  the  mass  of  the  peasants  m  Thuringia 
and  Saxony  had  collected  into  a  large  army.  On  May  15 
the  forces  of  Münzer,  numbering  about  8,000  men,  were 
defeated  in  the  battle  of  Frankenhausen.  Münzer  himself 
was  taken  prisoner,  and,  crushed  in  mind  and  spirit, 
was  executed  like  a  criminal.  A  few  days  before,  the  main 
army  of  the  Swabian  peasants  had  been  routed,  and  during 
the  following  wrecks,  one  stronghold  of  the  rebellion  after 
another  was  reduced,  and  the  horrors  perpetrated  by  the 
peasants  were  repaid  with  fearful  vengeance  on  their  heads. 
The  Landgrave  Philip,  and  John,  the  new  Elector  of 
Saxony,  distinguished  themselves  by  their  clemency  in  dis- 
missing unpunished  to  their  homes,  after  the  victory,  a 
number  of  the  insurgent  peasants. 

But  Luther's  violent  denunciations  now  gave  offence  even 
to  some  of  his  fi'iends.  His  Catholic  opponents,  and  those 
even  who  saw  no  harm  in  burning  heretics  wholesale  for  no 
other  reason  than  their  faith,  reproached  him  then,  and  do  so 
even  now,  with  horrible  cruelty  for  this  language.  Luther 
replied  to  the  *  complaints  and  questions  about  his  pamph- 
let,' with  a  public  'Epistle  on  the  harsh  pamphlet  against 
the  peasants.'  His  excitement  and  u-ritation  was  increased 
by  what  he  heard  talked  about  his  conduct.  He  maintained 
what  he  had  said.  But  he  also  reminded  his  readers,  that 
he  had  never,  as  his  calumniators  accused  him,  spoken  of 
actmg  against  the  conquered  and  humbled,  but  solely  of 
smiting  those  actually  engaged  m  rebellion.  He  declared 
further,  at  the  close  of  his  new  and  forcible  remarks  on  the 
use  of  the  sword,  that  Christian  authorities,  at  any  rate, 
were  bound,  if  victorious,  to  *  show  mercy  not  only  to  the 
innocent,  but   also   to  the   guilty.'     As    for    the    '  furious 

Y 


322  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

raging  and  senseless  tyrants,  who  even  after  the  battle  cannot 
satiate  themselves  with  blood,  and  throughout  their  life  never 
trouble  themselves  about  Christ ' — with  these  he  will  have 
nothing  whatever  to  do.  Similarly,  in  a  small  tract  on 
Münzer,  containing  characteristic  extracts  from  the  writings 
of  this  '  bloodthirsty  prophet,'  as  a  warning  to  the  people, 
Luther  entreated  the  lords  and  civil  authorities  '  to  be 
merciful  to  the  prisoners  and  those  who  surrendered,  .  .  . 
so  that  the  tables  should  not  be  turned  upon  the  victors.' 
If  we  have  now  to  lament,  as  we  must,  that  after  the 
rebellion  was  put  down,  nothing  was  done  to  remedy  the 
real  evils  that  caused  it ;  nay,  that  those  very  evils  were 
rather  increased  as  a  punishment  for  the  vanquished,  this 
reproach  at  least  applies  just  as  much  to  the  Catholic  lords, 
both  spiritual  and  temporal,  as  to  the  Evangelical  authorities 
or  Luther. 

In  addition  also  to  his  alleged  harshness  and  severity  to 
the  insurgents,  Luther  was  accused,  both  then  and  since, 
by  his  ecclesiastical  oi)ponents,  of  having  given  rise  to  the 
rebellion  by  his  preaching  and  wa-itings.  "When  the  danger 
and  anxiety  were  over,  Emser  had  the  effrontery  to  say 
of  him  in  some  popular  doggrel,  'Now  that  he  has  lit 
the  fire,  he  washes  his  hands  like  Pilate,  and  turns  his 
cloak  to  the  wind ; '  and  again,  '  He  himself  cannot  deny 
that  he  exhorted  you  to  rebellion,  and  called  all  of  you  dear 
children  of  God,  who  gave  up  to  it  your  lives  and  property, 
and  washed  your  hands  in  blood.  Thus  did  he  write  in 
public,  and  thereto  has  he  striven.' 

In  answer  to  this  charge,  Luther  referred  to  his  treatise 
*  On  the  Secular  Power,'  and  to  other  of  his  writings.  '  I 
know  well,'  he  was  able  to  say  with  truth,  *  that  no  teacher 
before  me  has  written  so  strongly  about  secular  authority ; 
my  very  enemies  ought  to  thank  me  for  this.  Who  ever 
made  a  stronger  stand  against  the  peasants,  with  writing 
and  preaching,  than  myself?  '  Among  the  Estates  of  the 
Empire,  not  even  the  most  violent  enemies  of  evangelical 


THE  FANATICS  AND  PEASANTS. 


323 


'ÜO^AS  _2^VKCEP^  V^S,D 


T  IN   X)VRINGE.bU 


Fig.  28. — Münzer  (his  execution  in  the  background. 
From  an  old  woodcut. 


y2 


324  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

doctrine  could  venture  now  to  turn  their  victorious  weapons 
against  their  associates  in  arms  who  espoused  that  doc- 
trine, with  whom  they  had  achieved  the  common  conquest^ 
and  from  whose  midst  had  sounded  the  most  vigorous  call 
to  battle  and  to  victory.  Luther,  on  the  contrary,  was  not 
afraid  at  this  moment  to  exhort  the  Archbishop,  Cardinal 
Albert,  of  whose  friendly  disposition  to  himself,  his  friend 
Eiihel  had  recently  informed  him,  to  follow  the  example  of 
his  cousin,  the  Grand  Master  in  Prussia,  by  converting  his 
bishopric  into  a  temporal  princedom,  and  entering  the  state 
of  matrimony,  and  to  name,  as  the  chief  motive  for  so 
doing,  the  '  hateful  and  horrible  rebellion,'  wherewith  God's 
wrath  had  visited  the  sins  of  the  priesthood. 

Thus  did  Luther,  in  these  stormy  times,  whatever 
might  be  thought  of  the  violence  of  his  utterances,  take 
up  his  position  clearly  and  resolutely  h'om  the  first,  and 
maintain  it  to  the  end; — sure  of  his  cause,  and  safe  against 
the  new  attack  which  he  saw  now  the  devil  was  making ; 
unyielding  and  defiant  towards  his  old  Papal  enemies  and 
then-  new  calumniations.  And  in  this  frame  of  mind  he 
took  just  now  a  step,  calculated  to  sharpen  all  the  tongues 
of  slander,  but  one  in  which  he  saw  the  fulfilment  of  his 
calling.  Freed  from  unchristian  monastic  vows,  he  entered 
into  the  holy  state  of  matrimony  ordained  by  God.  We 
first  hear  him  speaking  decidedly  on  this  subject  in  a  letter 
to  Kiihel  of  May  4.  After  referring  to  the  devil  as  the 
instigator  of  the  insurgent  peasants,  and  of  the  murderous 
deeds  which  made  him  anxious  to  prepare  himself  for 
death,  he  continues  with  the  following  remarkable  words : 
*  And  if  I  can,  in  spite  of  him,  I  will  take  my  Kate  in  mar- 
riage before  I  die.  I  hope  they  will  not  take  from  me  my 
courage  and  my  joy.' 


325 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

Luther's  marriage. 

Our  readers  will  recall  to  mind  those  words  of  Luther  at 
the  Wartburg,  on  hearing  that  his  teaching  was  making  the 
clergy  marry  and  monks  renounce  the  obligation  of  their 
vows.  No  wife,  he  declared,  should  be  forced  upon  him. 
He  remained  in  his  convent ;  looked  on  quietly,  as  one 
friend  and  fellow^labourer  after  the  other  took  advantage  of 
their  liberty ;  wished  them  happiness  in  the  enjoyment  of 
it,  and  advised  others  to  do  the  same ;  but  never  changed 
his  views  about  himself. 

His  enemies  reproached  him  with,  living  a  worldly  life, 
with  drinking  beer  in  company  with  his  friends,  with  play- 
ing the  lute,  and  so  on.  Nor  was  it  merely  his  Catholic 
opponents  who  sought  in  such  charges  material  for  vile 
slander,  but  also  jealous  ranters  like  Münzer  gave  vent  to 
then-  hatred  in  this  manner.  All  the  more  remarkable  it  is 
that  no  slanderous  reports  of  immoral  conduct  w^ere  ever 
launched  at  this  time,  even  by  his  bitterest  enemies,  against 
the  man  who  was  denouncing  so  openly  and  sternly  offences 
of  that  description  among  the  superior,  no  less  than  the 
inferior,  clergy.  Calumnies  of  this  kind  were  reserved  for 
the  occasion  of  his  marriage. 

In  truth,  his  life  was  one  of  the  most  arduous  labour, 
anxiety,  and  excitement ;  and  as  regards  his  bodily  needs, 
he  was  satisfied  with  the  plainest  and  most  sparing  diet  and 
the  simplest  enjoyments.  The  Augustinian  convent,  whence 
he  received  his  support,  being  gradually  denuded  of  its 
inmates  by  their  abandonment  of  monastic  life,  its  revenues 


326  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

accordingly  were  stopped.  Luther  informed  Spalatin  in 
1524  of  the  poverty  to  which  they  were  reduced ;  not  indeed, 
as  Spalatin  well  knew,  that  he  concerned  himself  much 
about  it,  or  wished  to  make  it  a  subject  of  complaint ;  if 
he  had  no  meat  or  wine,  he  could  live  well  enough  on  bread 
and  water.  Melancthon  describes  how  once,  before  his 
marriage,  Luther's  bed  had  not  been  made  for  a  whole  year, 
and  was  mildewed  with  perspiration.  *  I  was  tired  out,' 
says  Luther,  '  and  worked  myself  nearly  to  death,  so  that  I 
fell  into  the  bed  and  knew  nothing  about  it.' 

When,  moreover,  he  exchanged,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the 
autumn  of  1524,  the  monastic  cowl  for  the  garb  of  a  pro- 
fessor ;  and  when  he  and  the  prior  Brisger  were  the^only 
ones  of  all  the  former  monks  left  in  the  convent,  he  remained 
quietly  where  he  was,  and  never  entertained  the  idea  of 
marriage.  A  noble  lady,  Argula  von  Staufen,  wife  of  the 
Eitter  von  Grumbach,  formerly  in  the  Bavarian  army,  who 
had  written  publicly  for  the  cause  of  the  gospel,  and  thereby 
incurred,  with  her  husband,  the  displeasure  of  the  Duke  of 
Bavaria,  and  who  was  now  in  active  correspondence  with 
the  Wittenbergers  and  Spalatin,  expressed  to  the  latter  her 
surprise  that  Luther  did  not  marry.  Luther  thereupon 
wrote  to  Spalatin  on  November  30,  1524,  saying,  *  I  am  not 
surprised  that  folks  gossip  thus  about  me,  as  they  gossip 
about  many  other  things.  But  please  thank  the  lady  in 
my  name,  and  tell  her  that  I  am  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord, 
as  a  creature  whose  heart  He  can  change  and  re-change, 
destroy  or  revive,  at  any  hour  or  moment ;  but  as  my  heart 
has  hitherto  been,  and  is  now,  it  will  never  come  to  pass 
that  I  shall  take  a  wife.  Not  that  I  am  insensible  to  my 
flesh  or  sex,  .  .  .  but  because  my  mind  is  averse  to  wed- 
lock, because  I  daily  expect  the  death  and  the  well-merited 
punishment  of  a  heretic' 

Shortly  afterwards  Luther  wrote  to  his  friend  Link : 
*  Suddenly,  and  while  I  was  occupied  with  far  other  thoughts, 
the  Lord  has  plunged  me  into  marriage.'     It  was  in  the 


LUTHER'S  MARRIAGE.  327 

spring  of  1525  that  he  had  formed  this  resolve,  which 
speedily  ripened  to  its  fulfilment. 

In  a  letter  of  March  12,  1525,  he  complained  to  his 
friend  Amsdorf,  who  had  gone  to  Magdeburg,  of  depression 
of  spirits  and  temptation,  and  besought  him  to  pay  him  a 
fi'iendly  visit  to  cheer  him.  It  was,  as  we  see  from  the 
contents  of  the  letter,  a  temptation,  which  caused  Luther 
to  feel  that,  in  the  words  of  Scripture,  it  was  *  not  good  for 
man  to  be  alone,'  but  that  he  ought  to  have  a  help-meet  to 
be  with  him.  As  to  the  choice  of  such  a  help-meet  he  may 
have  already  talked  with  Amsdorf,  and  very  possibly  they 
may  have  spoken  of  a  lady  of  Magdeburg  of  the  family  of 
Alemann,  who  were  conspicuous  there  for  their  devotion  to 
the  evangelical  cause. 

But  Luther's  own  choice  turned  on  Catharine  von  Bora, 
a  former  nun.  Sprung  from  an  ancient,  though  poor  family 
of  noble  blood,  she  had  been  brought  up  from  childhood  in 
the  convent  of  Nimtzch  near  Grimma.  We  find  her  there 
as  early  as  1509 ;  she  was  born  on  January  29,  1499,  and 
was  consecrated  as  a  nun  at  the  age  of  sixteen.  When  the 
evangelical  doctrine  became  known  at  Nimtzch,  Catharine 
endeavom'ed  with  other  nuns  to  break  the  bonds,  which  she 
had  taken  upon  herself  without  any  real  free-will  or  know- 
ledge of  her  own.  In  vain  she  entreated  her  relatives  to 
release  her.  At  length  one  Leonhard  Koppe,  a  burgher 
and  councillor  of  Torgau,  took  her  part.  Assisted  by  him 
and  two  of  his  friends,  nine  nuns  escaped  secretly  from  the 
convent  on  Easter  Eve,  Aj^ril  5,  1523.  Luther  justified 
their  escape  in  a  public  letter  addressed  to  Koppe,  and 
collected  funds  for  their  support,  until  they  could  be  further 
provided  for.  They  fled  first  to  Wittenberg,  and  here 
Catharine  stayed  at  the  house  of  the  town  clerk  and  future 
burgomaster,  Philip  Eeichenbach. 

She  was  now  in  her  twenty-sixth  year,  when  Luther 
tm'ned  his  thoughts  towards  her.  He  told  afterwards  his 
friends  and  Catharine  herself,  with  perfect  frankness,  that 


328  EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 

he  had  not  been  in  love  with  her  before,  for  he  had  his 
suspicions,  and  they  were  not  unfounded,  that  she  was 
proud.  He  had  even  thought,  shortly  before,  of  arranging 
a  marriage  between  her  and  a  minister  named  Glatz,  who 
later  on,  however,  proved  himself  unworthy  of  his  office. 
Catharine,  on  the  other  hand,  is  said  to  have  gone  to 
Amsdorf,  as  the  trusted  friend  of  Luther,  and  to  have  told 
him  frankly  that  she  did  not  wish  to  marry  Glatz,  but  was 
ready  to  form  an  honourable  alliance  with  himself  or  with 
Luther.  If  Cranach's  portrait  of  her  is  to  be  trusted,  she 
was  not  remarkable  for  beauty  or  any  outward  attraction. 
But  she  was  a  healthy,  strong,  frank  and  true  German 
woman.  Luther  might  reasonably  expect  to  have  in  her  a 
loyal,  h-esh-hearted,  and  staunch  help-meet  for  his  life, 
whose  own  cares  or  requirements  would  cause  him  little 
anxiety,  while  she  would  be  just  such  a  companion  as,  with 
his  physical  ailments  and  mental  troubles,  he  required.  In 
the  event  of  her  haughty  disposition  asserting  itself  unduly, 
he  was  the  very  man  to  correct  it  with  quiet  firmness  and 
affection. 

What  further  considerations  induced  him  to  marry, 
appear  from  his  letters,  in  which  he  urged  his  friends  to  do 
likewise.  Thus  he  wrote  on  March  27  to  Wolfgang  Eeis- 
senbusch,  preceptor  of  the  convent  at  Lichtenberg,  saying 
that  man  was  created  by  God  for  marriage.  God  had  so 
made  man  that  he  could  not  well  do  without  it ;  whoever 
was  ashamed  of  marrying,  must  also  be  ashamed  of  his 
manhood,  or  must  pretend  to  be  wiser  than  God.  The 
devil  had  slandered  the  married  state  by  letting  people 
who  lived  in  immorality  be  held  in  high  honour.  Luther, 
in  thus  frankly  stating  the  natural  disposition  of  man  to 
married  life,  spoke  from  his  own  experience.  '  To  remain 
righteous  unmarried,'  he  said  once  later  on,  '  is  not  the 
least  of  trials,  as  those  know  well  who  have  made  the 
attempt.'  In  referring  as  he  did  to  the  devil,  he  probably 
had  in  his  mind  the  scandal  which  threatened  him  if  he 


puivEEsn 

LUTHER'S  MARRIAGE.    ^^AXtlY'^^^^^ 

should  decide  on  marrying.  He  then  goes  on  to  say  to 
Reissenbusch  that  if  he  honoured  the  Word  and  work  of 
God,  the  scandal  would  be  only  a  matter  of  a  moment,  to 
be  followed  by  years  of  honour.  To  Spalatin  he  writes  on 
April  10 :  *  I  find  so  many  reasons  for  urging  others  to 
marry,  that  I  shall  soon  be  brought  to  it  myself,  notwith- 
standing that  enemies  never  cease  to  condemn  the  married 
mate,  and  our  little  wiseacres  ridicule  it  every  day.'  The 
*  wiseacres '  he  was  thinking  of  were  professors  and  theo- 
logians of  his  circle  at  Wittenberg.  Not  only  was  he 
resolved,  however,  to  obey  the  will  of  his  Creator,  despite 
all  condemnation  and  ridicule,  but  he  deemed  it  his  duty  to 
testify  to  the  rightness  of  the  step  by  his  example  as  well 
as  by  his  words.  His  enemies,  in  fact,  were  taunting  him 
that  he  did  not  venture  to  practise  himself  what  he  preached 
to  others.  A  few  days  after,  immediately  before  his  depar- 
tm-e  for  Eisleben,  he  wrote  again  to  Spalatin,  recommend- 
ing his  friend,  who  had  been  so  utterly  averse  to  matrimony, 
to  take  care  that  he  was  not  anticipated  in  the  step. 

Amidst  all  the  terrors  of  the  Peasants'  War,  which  had 
now  broken  out  in  all  its  violence,  and  in  earnest  contem- 
plation of  a  near  end  possibly  threatening  himself,  he  had 
formed  the  fixed  resolve,  as  his  letter  of  May  4  to  Eühel 
shows,  to  *  take  his  Kate  to  wife,  in  spite  of  the  devil.' 
This  is  the  first  letter  in  which  he  mentions  her  name  to  a 
friend.  And  to  this  resolve  he  steadily  adhered  during  the 
troublous  weeks  that  followed,  when  he  was  called  on  to 
pay  the  last  honours  to  his  Elector,  to  rouse  men  to  the 
sanguinary  contest  with  the  peasants,  and  to  hear  con- 
tumely and  reproach  heaped  upon  his  stirring  words.  Be- 
sides writing  to  the  Cardinal  Albert  himself,  recommending 
him  to  marry,  he  sent  a  letter  also  on  June  3  to  his  friend 
Eühel,  who  held  office  as  one  of  his  advisers,  saying,  *  If 
my  marrying  might  serve  in  any  way  to  strengthen  his 
Grace  to  do  the  same,  I  should  be  very  willing  to  set  his 
Grace  the  example ;  for  I  have  a  mind,  before  leaving  this 


330  EXILE,  RETURN,   AND  MARRIAGE. 

world,  to  enter  the  married  state,  to  which  I  believe  God 
has  called  me.'  He  had  thoughts  of  this  kmd,  he  added, 
even  if  it  should  end  only  in  a  betrothal,  and  not  an  actual 
marriage. 

He  speedily  gave  effect  to  his  final  resolve,  in  order  to 
cut  short  all  the  loose  and  idle  gossip  which  threatened 
him  as  soon  as  his  intentions  were  known  with  regard  to 
Catharine  von  Bora.  He  took  none  of  his  friends  into  his 
confidence,  but  acted,  as  he  afterwards  advised  others  to 
act.  *  It  is  not  good,'  he  said,  *  to  talk  much  about  such 
matters.  A  man  must  ask  God  for  counsel,  and  pray,  and 
then  act  accordingly.' 

As  to  how  he  finally  came  to  terms  with  Catharine  we 
have  no  account  to  show.  But  on  the  evening  of  June  13, 
on  the  Tuesday  after  the  feast  of  the  Trinity,  he  invited  to 
his  house  his  friends  Bugenhagen,  the  parish  priest  of  the 
town,  Jonas,  the  professor  and  provost  of  the  church  of 
All  Saints,  Lucas  Cranach  with  his  wife,  and  the  jm-istic 
professor  Apel,  formerly  a  dean  of  the  Cathedral  at  Bam- 
berg, who  himself  had  married  a  nun,  and  in  their  presence 
was  married  to  Catharine.  The  marriage  was  solemnised 
in  the  customary  way.  The  pair  were  asked,  by  the  priest 
present,  Bugenhagen,  according  to  the  custom  prevailing 
in  Germany,  and  which  Luther  afterwards  followed  in 
his  tract  on  Marriage,  whether  they  would  take  one 
another  for  husband  and  wife ;  their  right  hands  were  then 
joined  together,  and  thus,  in  the  name  of  the  Trinity,  they 
were  *  joined  together  in  matrimony.'  The  ceremony  was 
therewith  concluded,  and  Catharine  remained  thenceforth 
with  Luther  as  his  wife.  Some  days  after  Luther  gave  a 
little  breakfast  to  his  friends;  and  the  magistracy,  of 
whom  Cranach  was  a  member,  sent  him  their  congratula- 
tions, together  with  a  present  of  wine.  A  fortnight  later, 
on  June  27,  Luther  celebrated  his  wedding  in  grander 
style,  by  a  nuptial  feast,  in  order  to  gather  his  distant 
friends  around  him.     He  wrote  to  them  saying  that  they 


LUTHER'S  MARRIAGE.  331 

were  to  *  seal  and  ratify  '  his  marriage,  and  '  help  to  pro- 
nounce the  benediction.'  Above  all  he  rejoiced  to  be  able 
to  see  his  '  dear  father  and  mother  '  at  the  feast.  Amon<^  the 
motives  for  his  marrying  he  especially  mentioned  that  iio 
had  felt  himself  bound  to  fulfil  an  old  duty,  in  accordance 
with  his  father's  wishes. 

Great  as  was  the  surprise  which  Luther  occasioned  by 
his  speedy  marriage,  it  was  no  gi'eater  than  the  talk  and 
sensation  that  immediately  ensued. 

Among  even  his  adherents  and  friends — especially  the 
*  wiseacres '  of  whom  he  had  spoken — there  was  much 
astonishment  and  shaking  of  heads.  It  was  considered 
that  the  gi'eat  man  had  lowered  himself,  and  gossip  was 
busy  in  asking  what  reasons  could  have  induced  him  to 
take  the  step.  Melancthon,  his  devoted  friend,  lost  for  the 
moment,  as  is  shown  by  his  letter  of  June  16  to  the  philo- 
logist Camerarius,  his  accustomed  self-possession.  He 
admitted  that  married  life  was  a  holy  state,  and  one  well- 
pleasing  to  God,  and  that  its  results  might  be  beneficial  to 
Luther's  nature  and  character  ;  but  he  was  of  opinion  that 
Luther's  lowering  himself  to  this  condition  was  a  lament- 
able act  of  weakness,  and  injurious  to  his  reputation — and 
that,  too,  at  a  time  when  Germany  was  more  than  ever  in 
need  of  all  his  spu'it  and  his  energy.  Luther  had  not 
invited  him  to  be  present  on  the  13th,  from  a  suspicion 
that  Melancthon  would  scarcely  approve  of  what  he  was 
doing.  A  few  days  afterwards,  however,  he  warmly  be- 
sought Link,  their  common  friend,  to  be  sure  and  attend 
their  nuptial  feast  on  the  27tli.  That  Luther,  in  this 
respect  also,  had  acted  as  a  man  of  strong  character  and 
determination,  would  soon  be  evident  to  them  all. 

Jlis  enemies  seized  the  occasion  of  his  marriage  to 
spread  vulgar  falsehoods  about  him,  which  soon  were  further 
exaggerated,  and  have  been  raked  up  shamelessly  again, 
even  in  our  own  time,  or  at  least  repeated  in  veiled  and 
scandalous  inuendoes. 


332 


EXILE,  RETURN,  AND  MARRIAGE. 


As  for  Luther  himself,  he  at  first  felt  strange  in  the 
new  mode  of  lite  which  he  had  entered  at  the  age  of  forty- 
one,  so  suddenly,  and  in  the  midst  of  his  arduous  labours, 
and  the  stirring  public  events  and  struggles  of  the  time. 
At  the  same  time  he  could  not  but  be  aware  of  the  un- 
favourable reception  which  his  step  would  encounter, 
even  with  his  friends  at  Wittenberg.     Melancthon  found 


Fig.  29.— Luther.     (From  a  Portrait  by  Cranach  in  1525.) 
At  Wittenberg. 

hmi,  during  the  early  days  of  his  married  life,  in  a  restless 
and  uncertain  mood.  But  he  remained  firm  in  his  con- 
viction that  Grod  had  called  him  to  the  married  state.  The 
same  day  that  Melancthon  wrote  so  anxiously  to  Camerarius 
about  his  marriage,  Luther  himself  wrote  to  Spalatin,  say- 
ing, '  I  have  made  myself  so  vile  and  contemptible  forsooth, 
that  all  the  angels,  I  hope,  will  laugh,  and  all  the  devils 


LUTHER'S  MARRIAGE.  333 

weep.'  In  his  letter  of  invitation  to  his  friends  for  June  27, 
friendly  humour  is  mingled  with  words  of  deep  earnestness ; 
nay,  even  with  thoughts  of  death,  and  a  longing  for  release 
from  this  infatuated  world.  Later  on  Luther  preached,  on 
the  gi-ound  of  his  own  experiences,  ahout  the  blessings, 
the  joys,  and  the  purifying  burdens  of  the  state  ordained 
and  sanctified  by  God,  and  never  without  an  expression  of 


Fm.  30.— Catharine  von  Bora,  Luther's  wife.     (From  a  Portrait  by 
Cranach  about  1525.)     At  Berlin. 

gratitude  to  God  for  having  brought  him  to  enter  into  it. 
Seventeen  years  after  his  marriage  he  bore  testimony  to 
Catharine  in  his  will,  that  she  had  been  to  him  a  '  pious, 
faithful,  and  devoted  wife,  always  loving,  worthy,  and 
beautiful.' 

Of  the  wedding  feast  of  June  27  we  have  no  further 
details.     It    was,   so  far    as    concerns  the  repast,  a   very 


334 


EXILE,   RETURN,   AND  MARRIAGE. 


simple  one,  as  compared  with  the  elaborate  nuptial  enter- 
tainments then  in  fashion.  The  university  presented 
Luther  with  a  beautifully  chased  goblet  of  silver,  bearing 
round  its  hase  the  words  :  '  The  honourable  University  of 
the  Electoral  town  of  Wittenberg  presents  this  wedding 
gift  to  Doctor  Martin  Luther  and  his  wife  Kethe  von  Bora.' ' 


Luther's  Eing  from  Catharine. 


Apartments  in  the  convent,  w^hich  Brisger  also  quitted 
shortly  after  to  become  a  minister,  were  appointed  by  the 
Elector  as  the  dwelling-place  of  Luther.  Here,  therefore, 
Catharine  had  to  manage  her  household. 

Protestant  posterity  has  been  anxious  to  retain  a  me- 
morial of  this  marriage  in  the  wedding  rings  of  the  newly- 


FiG.  32, — Luther's  Double  Ring. 

married  couple.  These,  however,  were  probably  not  used  at 
the  marriage  itself,  since  Luther  wished  to  have  it  solemnised 
so  quickly  and  without  the  knowledge  of  others.  But  a 
ring  has  been  preserved,  which  Luther,  to  judge  from  the  in- 
scription (D.  Martino  Luthero  Catharina  v.  Boren  13  Jun. 


The  goblet  is  now  in  the  possession  of  the  University  of  Greifswald. 


LUTHER'S  MARRIAGE.  335 

1525),  received  at  any  rate  from  his  Kate  as  a  supplementary 
reminiscence  of  the  day.  In  recent  times— about  1817 — 
it.  has  been  multipHed  by  several  copies.  It  bears  the  figure 
of  the  crucified  Saviour  and  the  instruments  of  His  death ; 
in  perfect  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  the  Reformer,  whose 
marriage,  like  the  other  acts  of  his  life,  was  concluded  in 
the  name  of  Christ  crucified.  There  exists  also,  in  the 
Ducal  Museum  at  Brunswick,  a  double  ring,  consisting  of 
two  interfastened  in  the  middle,  of  which  one  bears  a 
diamond  with  his  initials  M.  L.  D.,  and  the  other  a  ruby 
with  the  initials  of  his  w^ife,  C.  v.  B.  The  inner  surface 
of  the  first  ring  is  engraved  with  the  words  :  *  Was  .  Got  . 
zusAMEN  .  FiEGT,'  (Thosc  whom  God  hath  joined  together), 
and  the  second,  *  Sol  .  kein  .  mensch  .  scheiden,'  (Shall 
no  man  put  asunder).  This  double  ring  was  probably  given 
by  some  friend  to  Luther,  or,  as  others  suppose,  to  his 
wife. 


PAET  V. 

LUTHER  AND  THE  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH, 
TO  THE  FIRST  RELIGIOUS  PEACE,     1525-1Ö32. 


CHAPTER   I. 

SURVEY. 


The  year  1525  marks  in  tlie  life  of  Luther  and  the  history 
of  the  Reformation  an  epoch  and  a  departure  of  general 
importance. 

Luther's  preaching  had  originally  forced  its  way  among 
the  German  people  and  its  various  classes,  with  an  energy 
and  strength  never  counted  on  by  its  opponents.  It  seemed 
impossible  to  calculate  how  far  the  ferment  would  extend, 
and  what  would  be  its  ultimate  results.  It  was  the  idea  of 
the  Elector  Frederick  the  Wise,  now  dead,  that  by  simply 
letting  the  word  of  the  gospel  unfold  itself  quietly  and 
work  its  way  without  hindrance,  the  truth  could  not  fail 
eventually  to  penetrate  all  Christendom,  or  at  least  the 
Christian  world  of  Germany,  and  thus  accomplish  a  peace- 
ful victory.  This  hope  had  guided  him  during  his  lifetime 
in  his  relations  with  Luther,  and  no  one  appreciated  and 
responded  to  it  more  loyally  than  Luther  himself.  But 
now,  as  we  have  seen,  those  German  princes  who  adhered 
to  the  old  Church  system  had  begun  to  form  a  close 
alliance,  and  were  meditating  means  of  remedying,  albeit 
in  their  own  fashion,  certain  evils  in  the  Church.  Erasmus, 
still  the  representative  of  a  powerful  modern  movement  of 


SURVEY.  337 

the  intellect,  had  at  length  broken  finally  with  Luther,  and 
renewed  his  former  allegiance  to  the  Romish  Church.  From 
the  German  nobility,  whose  sympathy  and  co-operation 
Luther  had  once  so  boldly  and  hopefully  invoked  in  his 
contest  with  the  Papacy,  it  was  vain,  since  the  fatal 
enterprise  of  Sickingen,  which  Luther  himself  had  been 
forced  to  condemn,  to  expect  any  material  assistance  in 
furtherance  of  the  Evangelical  cause.  True,  there  was 
the  extensive  rising  of  another  class,  the  peasantry,  who 
likewise  appealed  to  the  gospel.  But  genuine  disciples  of 
the  gospel  could  not  fail  to  see  in  this  movement,  with  terror, 
how^  a  perverse  conception  of  the  sacred  text  led  to  errors 
and  crimes  which  even  Luther  wished  to  see  suj^pressed  in 
blood.  And  the  Catholic  nobles  took  advantage  of  this 
rising  to  persecute  with  the  greater  rigour  all  evangelical 
preaching,  and  to  extend,  without  further  inquiry,  their 
denunciation  of  the  insurgents  to  those  of  evangelical 
sympathies  who  held  entirely  aloof  from  the  insurrection. 
Luther,  in  his  dealings  with  the  nobles  and  peasants,  failed 
to  preserve  that  boldness  and  confidence  of  mind  and 
language  which  he  had  previously  displayed  towards  his 
fellow-countrymen.  That  his  cause,  indeed,  was  the  cause 
of  God,  he  remained  unshakenly  convinced  ;  but  in  a  sadder 
spirit  than  he  had  ever  shown  before,  he  left  God's  will 
to  determine  what  amount  of  visible  success  that  cause 
should  attain  to  in  the  present  evil  world,  or  how  far  the 
decision  should  depend  upon  His  last  great  Judgment. 

Even  before  the  Peasants'  War  broke  out,  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  fanatics  had  begun  to  hamper  and  disturb  his 
labours  in  the  field  of  reformation,  and  had  prepared  for  him 
much  pain  and  tribulation.  He  had  to  grow  distrustful  of 
so  many  whom  he  had  regarded  as  brothers,  and  of  their  man- 
ner of  proclaiming  the  Word  of  God,  Whom  they  pretended 
to  serve.  He  already  heard  of  men  among  them,  who  not 
only  rejected  infant  baptism,  and  openly  attacked  his  own, 
no  less  than  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  the   Sacrament,  but 

z 


338 


RECONSTRUCTION   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


567i'/'A'l 


339 


who  impugned  the  universal  belief  of  Christendom  in  the 
Triune  God  and  the  Divinity  of  the  Saviour.  Early  in  1525 
news  reached  him  of  such  a  man  at  Niircml)erg,  John  Denk, 
the  Eector  of  the  school  there,  who  was  expelled  on  that 
account  by  the  magistrates.  Luther's  own  doctrine  of  the 
presence  of  Christ's  Body  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  which  he 
had  previously  to  defend  against  Carlstadt,  his  former 
colleague  and  fellow-combatant,  now  found  a  far  more 
formidable  opponent  in  the  Zurich  Eeformer,  Uh'ich 
Zwingli.  The  latter,  in  a  letter  of  November  IG,  1524,  to 
Alber,  a  preacher  at  Reutlingen,  had  already  disputed  the 


Fig.  34.  — Facsimile  of  Frederick's  signature. 


Eeal  Presence,  by  interpreting  the  words  'This  is  my  body' 
to  mean  '  This  signifies  my  body.'  In  March  1525  he  made 
known  this  interpretation  to  the  world  by  publishing  his 
letter,  together  with  a  pamphlet  '  On  the  True  and  False 
Religion.'  He  was  jomed  at  Basle  by  Oecolampadius, 
wdiom  Luther  had  welcomed  formerly  as  a  fellow-labourer, 
and  who  i:>ublished  his  own  interpretation  of  the  words  of 
Christ.  Butzer  and  Capito,  the  evangelical  preachers  at 
Strasburg,  inclined  to  the  same  view,  which  threatened  to 
spread  rapidly  over  the  South  of  Germany.  The  opposition 
now  encountered  Ijv  Luther  was  far  more  dangerous  for  his 

z  2 


340  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE  CHURCH. 

teaching  than  the  theories  and  agitations  of  a  Carlstadt, 
since  whatever  judgment  may  be  formed  about  its  merits, 
it  proceeded  at  any  rate  from  men  of  far  more  thought- 
ful minds,  more  solid  theological  acquirements,  and  more 
honest  reverence  for  the  Word  of  God.  Herewith  then 
began  that  division  of  opinion  among  the  ranks  of  the 
Evangelical  Eeformers,  which  served  more  than  anything 
else  to  retard  the  fresh  and  vigorous  progress  of  the 
Reformation,  and  infected  even  Luther's  spirit  with  the 
bitterness  of  the  controversy  it  entailed. 

At  the  same  time,  however,  Luther  had  now  won  firm 
gi'ound  for  the  Evangelical  cause  upon  a  fixed  and  extensive 
territory.     Within  these  limits  it  was  possible  to  construct 
a  new  Church  system,  upon  stable  foundations  and  with  a 
new  constitution.     John,  the  new  Elector  of  Saxony,  did 
not  enjoy,  it  is  true,  the  same  high  consideration  through- 
out the  Empire  as  his  brother  Frederick,  Luther's  great 
protector,  and   he  was  also   his  inferior  as  a  statesman. 
But   with   Luther    himself    both   he    and    his    son    John 
Frederick  had  already  maintained  a  friendly  personal  inter- 
course, such  as  his  predecessor  had  carefully  avoided.     Nor 
did  his  disposition  lead  him,  like  Frederick,  to  pay  any  such 
regard  to  the  possible  preservation  of  Church  unity  in  the 
German  Emphe  and  Western  Christendom ;  on  the  contrary, 
he  soon  showed  his  readiness  to  undertake  independently, 
as  sovereign  of  his  country,  the  establishment  of  a   new 
Evangelical  Church.     Prussia  had  just  preceded  him  in  a 
reform  embracing   the  whole    country,  under  the  former 
Grand  Master  of  the  Teutonic  Knights,  their  present  Duke. 
The  Elector  now  found  a  further  ally  for  the  work  in  the 
Landgrave  Philip  of  Hesse,  the  most  active  and  politically 
the  most  unportant  of  all.    As  a  young  man  of  only  twenty 
years  of  age,  in  the  beginning  of  1525,  he  had  rendered 
valuable   service   by   his   energy,  resolution,   and   warlike 
ability,  in  the  defeat  of  Sickingen,  and  again  when  opposed 
to  the  seditious  peasants.     Aheady  before  the   Peasants' 


SURVEY. 


341 


War  commenced,  he  had  acquired,  mainly  through  Melanc- 
thon,  whom  he  had  met  when  travelHng,  a  knowledge  and 


19on (ßotf 5 sna^cn philips  Kanfctffraffc  ^wW^tKtn  «©raue  ju  CatscnndnDOjgm 


/ktnt  l&^^ttuT  JMrnfAauin  ja  JttlM«« 


Fig.  35. — Philip  of  Hesse.     (From  a  woodcut  of  Brosamer.) 

love  of  the  evangelical  doctrines.     His  father-in-law,  Duke 
George    of   Saxony,  had    vainly  endeavoured,  after    their 


342  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 

common  victory  over  the  insurgents,  to  alienate  him  from 
the  cause  of  the  hateful  Luther,  who  he  said  was  the  author 
of  so  much  mischief.  But  the  menaces  hurled  against 
that  cause  by  the  Catholic  States  of  the  Empire  served 
only  to  attach  him  more  closely  and  loyally  to  John  and 
John  Frederick,  and  thence  resulted  in  the  following 
spring  the  League  of  Torgau,  which  was  joined  also  by  the 
princes  of  Brunswick-Liinebm-g,  Anhalt,  and  Mecklenburg, 
and  the  town  of  Magdebm-g.  The  co-operation  of  the 
territorial  princes  made  it  possible  to  procure  for  the 
Eeformation  and  its  Chm^ch  system  a  firm  position  in  the 
German  Empire  against  the  Emperor  and  the  hostile 
Catholic  States.  And,  at  the  same  time,  it  offered  means 
for  establishing  on  the  ground  newly  occupied  by  the 
Eeformation  itself,  firm  and  generally  recognised  regula- 
tions of  Chm'ch  polity,  and  defending  them  from  bemg 
disturbed  by  the  proceedings  of  fanatics. 

Under  these  new  conditions  and  circumstances,  Luther's 
work  became  limited,  as  was  natural,  to  a  narrower  field, 
and  bore  no  longer  the  same  character  of  boldness  and 
independence  which  had  marked  it  in  his  original  contest 
with  Kome.  But  it  required,  on  this  account,  all  the  more 
perseverance  and  patience,  faithfulness  and  circumspection 
in  minor  matters,  and  an  adequate  regard  to  what  was 
actually  requned  and  practicable,  while  clinging  firmly  to 
the  lofty  aims  and  objects  with  which  the  work  of  the 
Eeformation  had  commenced. 

To  the  portrait  of  Luther  as  the  Eeformer  we  have  to 
add  henceforth  that  of  the  married  man  and  head  of  the 
household,  whose  single  desne  is  to  fulfil,  as  a  man  and  a 
Clnistian,  the  duties  belongmg  to  this  state  of  life,  and  to 
enjoy  with  a  quiet  conscience  the  blessings  of  God.  In  his 
letters  to  intimate  friends  we  find  happy  home  news  alter- 
nating with  the  most  profound  and  serious  reflections  on 
the  conduct  and  duties  of  the  Evangehcal  Church,  and  on 
abstruse  questions  of  theology.    His  language  as  a  Eeformer 


SURVEY.  343 

deals  now  no  longer,  as  in  his  Address  to  the  German 
Nobility,  in  particular,  with  the  problems  and  interests  of 
political  and  social  life ;  it  is  mainly  to  religious  and  spirit- 
ual matters,  and  to  the  kindred  questions  affecting  the 
active  work  and  constitution  of  the  Church,  that  his  mission 
is  now  directed.  But  his  personal  relations  with  his 
countrymen  became  all  the  more  close  and  intimate  in 
consequence  of  this  clmnge  of  life  ;  and  that  which  by 
many  of  his  friends  w^as  regretted  as  a  lowering  of  his  re- 
putation and  influence,  becomes  a  valuable  and  essential 
feature  in  the  historical  portrait  now  presented  to  our  eyes. 
In  single  dramatic  incidents  and  changes,  so  to  speak, 
Luther's  life  henceforth,  as  was  only  natural,  is  no  longer 
so  rich  as  during  the  earlier  years  of  development  and 
struggle.  We  shall  no  longer  meet  with  crises  of  such  a 
kind  as  mark  a  momentous  epoch. 


344  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


CHAPTEE  II. 

CONTESrUED  LABOUES   AND    PERSONAL   LIFE    TO    1529. 

Among  the  particular  labours  which  occupied  Luther  during 
the  further  course  of  the  year  1525,  apart  from  his  per- 
severing industry  as  a  professor  and  preacher,  we  have 
already  had  occasion  to  mention  one,  namely,  his  reply  to 
Erasmus.  We  find  him  towards  the  end  of  September 
entirely  engrossed  in  this  work.  Not  a  single  proposition 
in  Erasmus'  book,  so  he  wrote  to  Spalatin,  would  he  admit. 

The  reckless  severity  with  which  he  assailed  that  dis- 
tmguished  opponent  appears  all  the  more  remarkable  when 
contrasted  with  the  conciliatory  tone  whereby  he  was  then 
hoping  to  appease  the  wrath  of  his  two  bitterest  enemies 
in  high  places,  King  Henry  YIII.  of  England  and  Duke 
George  of  Saxony. 

On  September  1,  1525,  he  addressed  a  humble  letter  to 
Henry.  King  Christian  II.  of  Denmark,  who,  after  forfeiting 
his  throne  by  his  arbitrary  and  despotic  rule,  had  taken  refuge 
with  the  Elector  Frederick,  showed  an  inclination  to  favour 
the  new  doctrine,  and  even  came  in  person  to  Wittenberg. 
By  him  Luther  was  induced  to  believe — for  what  reason  it 
does  not  appear — that  Henry  VIII.  had  entirely  changed  his 
Church  principles  ;  and  to  hope  that,  if  only  he  could  make 
amends  for  the  personal  offence  he  had  given  him,  Henry 
might  be  won  over  still  further  for  the  Evangelical  cause. 
Luther  refers  to  this  hope  as  follows :  '  My  Most  Gracious 
Sire  the  King  gave  me  good  cause  to  hope  for  the  King  of 
England.  .  .  .  and  ceased  not  to  urge  me  by  speech  and 
letter,  giving  me  so  many  good  words,  and  telling  me  that 


CONTINUED   LABOURS   AND  PERSONAL   LIEE.     345 

I  ought  to  wriie  liunibly,  and  that  it  would  be  useful  to  do 
so,  and  so  forth,  until  1  am  fairly  intoxicated  with  the  idea/ 
He  then  cast  himself  in  his  letter  at  the  feet  of  his  Majesty, 
and  besought  him  to  pardon  him  for  the  offence  he  had 
given  by  his  earlier  pamphlet,  '  because  from  good  witnesses 
he  had  learned  that  the  Eoyal  treatise  which  he  had 
attacked,  was  not  indeed  the  work  of  the  King  himself,  but 
a  concoction  of  the  miserable  Cardinal  of  York  '  (Edward 
Lee).  He  promised  to  make  a  public  retractation,  in  another 
pamphlet,  for  the  sake  of  the  Kmg's  honour.  At  the  same 
time,  he  wished  that  the  grace  of  God  might  assist  his 
Majesty,  and  enable  him  to  turn  wholly  to  the  gospel,  and 
shut  his  ears  against  the  siren  voices  of  its  enemies. 

With  regard  to  Duke  George  of  Saxony,  all  that  Luther 
had  as  yet  heard  about  him  was  that  he  was  incessantly 
bringing  fresh  complaints  about  him  to  the  Elector,  that  he 
rigorously  excluded  the  new  teaching  from  his  own  territory, 
and,  what  was  more,  that  he  was  anxious  to  go  on  from  the 
conquest  of  the  peasants  to  the  suppression  of  Luther- 
anism,  which  had  been  the  cause,  he  declared,  of  all  the 
mischief.  Now,  however,  Luther  learned  from  certain  Saxon 
nobles,  that  the  Duke  himself  was  not  so  unfavourably 
disposed  to  the  cause,  and  was  willing  to  treat  with  mild- 
ness and  toleration  those  who  preached  or  confessed  the 
gospel ;  that  it  was  with  Luther  personally  that  he  was  so 
offended  and  irritated.  Luther  wrote  to  him  on  Decem- 
ber 22  of  this  year.  *  I  have  been  advised,'  he  says,  *  once 
more  to  entreat  your  Grace  in  this  letter,  with  all  humility 
and  friendship,  for  it  almost  seems  to  me  as  if  God,  our 
Lord,  would  soon  take  some  of  us  from  hence,  and  the  fear 
is  that  Duke  George  and  Luther  may  also  have  to  go.'  He 
then  entreats,  with  all  submission,  his  pardon  for  whatever 
wrong  he  had  done  the  Duke  by  writing  or  in  speech; 
but  of  his  doctrine  he  could,  for  conscience'  sake,  retract 
nothing.  Luther,  however,  did  not  humble  himself  to 
George  as  he  had  done  to  lung  Henry,  and  his  letter  bears 


346  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 

his  characteristic  sharpness  of  tone.  He  assured  the  Duke, 
however,  that,  with  all  his  former  severity  of  language 
towards  him,  he  was  a  better  friend  to  him  than  all  his 
sycophants  and  parasites,  and  that  the  Duke  had  no  need 
to  pray  to  God  against  him. 

Luther  undoubtedly  wrote  the  two  letters,  as  he  himself 
says  of  the  one  to  Henry,  with  a  simple  and  honest  heart. 
They  show,  indeed,  how  much  genuine  good-nature,  and  at 
the  same  time  how  strange  an  ignorance  of  the  world  and 
of  men,  was  combined  in  him  together  with  a  passionate 
zeal  for  combat.  George  answered  him  at  once  with 
ferocity,  and,  as  Luther  says,  with  the  coarseness  of  a 
peasant.  The  prince,  otherwise  not  ignoble,  was  so  em- 
bittered by  hatred  against  the  heretic  as  to  reproach  him 
with  the  vulgarest  motives  of  avarice,  ambition,  and  the 
lust  of  the  flesh.  Never  had  Luther,  even  with  his  worst 
enemies,  stooped  to  such  personal  slander.  Concerning 
the  answer  which  came  afterwards  from  King  Henry,  as 
weh  as  the  reply  of  Erasmus,  we  shall  speak  further  on. 

Meanwhile,  Luther  and  his  friends  were  directing  their 
attention  to  the  newly  pubhshed  doctrine  of  the  Last  Supper. 
At  first  Luther  left  others  to  contest  it:  Bugenhagen 
addressed  a  public  letter  against  it  to  his  friend  Hess  at 
Breslau;  Brenz  at  Schwäbish  Hall,  together  with  other 
Swabian  preachers,  published  tracts  against  Oecolampadius. 
Luther  himself,  after  February  1525,  referred  repeatedly 
to  Zwingli's  theory  in  sermons  to  the  congregation  at 
Wittenberg  which  were  printed  at  the  time.  But  beyond 
this  he  confined  himself  to  sending  warnings  by  letter,  on 
November  5,  1525,  and  January  4,  1526,  to  Strasburg  and 
Keutlingen,  whence  he  had  been  appealed  to  on  the  subject, 
against  the  false  doctrines  which  had  been  put  forward  con- 
cerning the  Sacrament,  and  particularly  against  the  fanatics. 
We  shall  fohow  later  on  the  further  course  of  the  con- 
troversy. 

All  these  polemics,  however,  were  only  an  adjunct  to  his 


CONTI  XU  ED  LABOURS  AND  PERSONAL  LIEE.     347 

positive  labours  and  activity.  His  chief  task  now  was  to 
carry  out  the  work  he  had  begun  in  his  own  Church.  For 
this  he  could  rely  with  certainty  on  the  inward  sympathy 
of  the  new  Elector,  and  he  hastened  to  turn  it  actively 
to  account  as  soon  as  possible,  for  the  furtherance  of 
his  Church  objects.  During  his  communications  with 
the  late  Elector  Frederick,  Spalatin  had  always  acted  as 
intermediary  ;  but  to  John  he  addressed  himself  direct,  and, 
whenever  occasion  offered,  by  word  of  mouth,  and  this  at 
times  with  much  urgency.  Spalatin  was  now  the  pastor  of 
a  parish,  as  had  been  his  wish  some  time  before.  He  was 
the  successor  at  Altenburg  of  Link,  who  had  removed  to 
Nuremberg,  and  he  enjoyed  the  especial  confidence  of  John. 

In  his  official  capacity  Luther  was,  and  always  remained, \ 
before  all  things,  a  member  of  the  university.  He  cherished  I 
at  all  times  a  lively  appreciation  of  its  importance  to  the  cause/ 
of  evangelical  truth,  the  Church,  and  the  common  welfare  of 
society.  He  began  by  pleading  on  its  behalf  to  the  new 
Elector,  to  remedy  the  defects  and  grievances  which  had 
crept  in  dm'ing  the  latter  years  of  the  old  and  ailing  Elector 
Frederick.  The  requisite  salary,  in  particular,  was  wanting 
for  several  of  the  professorships,  and  the  customary  lectures 
on  many  branches  of  study  had  been  dropped.  Luther,  as  he 
himself  afterwards  told  the  Elector  in  a  tone  of  apology,  had 
*  worried  him  sorely  to  put  the  university  in  order,'  so 
much  so  that  '  his  urgency  wellnigh  surprised  the  Elector, 
as  though  he  had  not  much  faith  in  his  promises.'  In  Sep- 
tember the  necessary  reforms  at  Wittenberg  were  provided 
for  by  a  commission  specially  appointed  by  the  prince. 
The  interest  the  latter  took  in  theology  made  him  double 
Melancthon's  salary,  in  order  to  attach  him  the  more  closely 
to  the  theological  lectures,  which  originally  were  not  part 
of  his  duty. 

Luther  next  devoted  all  his  energies  towards  the  require- 
ments of  the  new  Church  system. 

At  Wittenberg,  and  from  thence  in  other  places,  regula- 


348  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

tions  for  the  performance  of  public  worship  had  already  been 
established,  with  the  object  of  giving  full  and  free  expres- 
sion to  evangelical  truth.  The  congregation  had  the  Word 
of  God  read  aloud  to  them,  and  joined  in  the  singing  of 
German  hymns.  The  portions  of  the  Liturgy,  however, 
which  were  sung  partly  by  the  priests  and  partly  by  the 
choir,  were  still  conducted  in  Latin.  Luther  now  introduced 
a  complete  service  in  German,  changing  here  and  there  the 
old  form.  To  assist  him  in  the  musical  alterations 
required,  the  Elector  sent  him  two  musicians  from  Torgau. 
With  one  of  these  in  particular,  John  Walter,  Luther 
worked  with  diligence,  and  continued  afterwards  on  terms 
of  friendly  intercourse.  He  himself  composed  a  few  pieces 
for  the  w^ork. 

Of  these,  as  of  the  earlier  regulations  at  Wittenberg, 
Luther  published  a  formal  account.  It  appeared  at  the 
beginning  of  the  next  year  (1526),  under  the  title  of  '  The 
German  Mass  and  Order  of  Divine  Worship  at  Witten- 
berg.' But  he  guarded  himself  in  this  publication,  from 
the  outset,  against  the  new  Service  being  construed  into  a  law 
of  necessary  obhgation,  or  made  a  means  of  disquieting  the 
conscience.  In  this  matter,  as  in  others,  he  wished  above 
all  things  that  regard  should  be  paid  to  the  w^eak  and  simple 
brethren— to  those  who  had  still  to  be  trained  and  built  up 
into  Christians.  Nay,  he  had  meant  it  for  a  people  among 
whom,  as  he  said,  many  were  not  Christians  at  all,  but  the 
majority  stood  and  stared,  for  the  mere  sake  of  seeing 
something  new,  just  as  though  a  Christian  Service  were 
being  performed  among  Turks  and  heathens.  The  first 
question  with  these  was  how  to  attract  them  publicly  to  a 
confession  of  belief  and  Christianity.  He  thought  also,  at 
this  time,  of  another  and,  as  he  termed  it,  a  true  kind  of 
Evangelical  Service,  for  which,  however,  the  people  were  not 
yet  prepared.  His  idea  in  this  was  that  all  individuals 
who  were  Christians  in  earnest,  and  were  willing  to  confess 
the  gospel,   should  enrol  themselves  by  name,  and  meet 


CONTINUED  LABOURS  AND  PERSONAL  LIFE.     349 

together  for  prayer,  for  reading  the  Word  of  God,  for 
administering  the  Sacraments,  and  exercising  works  of 
Christian  piety.  For  an  assemhly  of  this  kind,  and  for 
their  worship  of  God,  he  contempLated  no  elaborate  form  of 
Liturgy,  but,  on  the  contrary,  simply  a  *  short  and  proper  ' 
means  of  '  directing  all  in  common  to  the  Word  and 
prayer  and  charity,'  and  in  addition  thereto,  a  regular 
exercise  of  congregational  discipline  and  a  Christian  care  of 
the  poor,  after  the  example  of  the  Apostles.  But  for  the 
present,  he  said,  he  must  resign  this  idea  of  a  congregation 
simply  from  the  want  of  proper  persons  to  compose  it.  He 
would  w^ait  '  until  Christians  were  found  sufficiently  earnest 
about  the  Word  to  offer  themselves  for  the  purpose,  and 
adhere  to  it ; '  otherwise  it  might  serve  only  to  generate 
a  *  spirit  of  faction,'  if  he  attempted  to  carry  it  through 
by  himself ;  for  the  Germans,  he  said,  w^ere  a  wild  people, 
and  very  difficult  to  deal  with,  unless  extreme  necessity 
compelled  them.  The  Elector,  however,  readily  assented  to 
this  project,  and  purposed  to  proj)ose  it  as  a  model  for  other 
churches  in  his  dominions. 

At  this  point,  how^ever,  a  wider  field  of  action  opened 
out,  the  details  of  which  could  not  be  comprehended  at  a 
single  glance,  and  which  seemed  to  require  a  higher  care, 
and  the  guidance  and  support  of  higher  powers  and 
authorities.  In  many  places,  nothing  as  yet,  or  at  all  events 
nothing  of  a  stable  and  w^ell-ordered  kind,  had  been  done 
towards  a  reconstruction  of  the  Church  and  the  satisfaction 
of  spiritual  requirements  in  an  evangelical  sense.  There 
was  no  collective  Church,  and  no  ecclesiastical  office  existing 
by  w^hose  influence  and  authority  reforms  might  have  been 
made,  and  a  new  organisation  established.  This  was  a 
grievous  state  of  need  where,  perhaps,  the  existing  clergy 
and  the  majority  or  the  flower  of  their  congi-egations  were 
already  unanimous  and  decided  in  their  confession  of 
evangelical  doctrine.  And  in  a  number  of  congregations, 
indeed,  among  the  great  mass  of  the  country  people,  there 


350  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

prevailed  to  a  peculiar  degree,  that  want  of  understanding, 
of  ripe  thought,  and  of  inward  sympathy,  which  Luther 
noticed  even  among  many  of  his  Wittenbergers.  The 
bishops,  in  their  visitations  in  Saxony  under  the  Elector 
Frederick,  had  been  unable  to  check  any  longer  the 
progress  of  the  new  teaching,  and  did  not  venture  on  any 
further  interference.  And  yet  this  teaching,  as  Luther 
knew  better  than  anyone,  had  not  yet  succeeded,  in  spite 
of  all  its  popularity,  in  penetrating  the  souls  of  men.  To 
a  large  extent,  the  masses  seemed  to  be  still  stolid  and  in- 
different. Even  among  the  clergy,  many  were  so  unstable, 
so  obscure,  and  so  incompetent,  that  they  failed  to  make  any 
progress  with  their  congregations.  There  were  even  some 
among  them  who  were  ready,  according  to  circumstances, 
to  adopt  either  the  old  or  the  new  Church  usages.  In  some 
places  the  new  practices  were  opposed  as  innovations, 
especially  by  various  nobles,  and  by  the  priests,  who  were 
dependent  on  the  nobles  :  if  such  opposition  was  to  be 
broken,  it  could  only  be  done  by  the  authority  and  power 
of  the  local  sovereign.  Lastly,  and  apart  from  all  this,  the 
new  Church  system  was  threatened  with  imminent  disturb- 
ance and  dissolution  from  the  insufficiency  or  misuse  of  the 
funds  required  for  its  support.  The  customary  revenues 
were  falling  off ;  payments  were  no  longer  made  for  private 
masses ;  and  many  of  the  nobles,  including  even  those  who 
remamed  attached  to  the  old  system,  began  to  secularise 
the  property  of  the  Church.  '  Unless  measures  are  taken,' 
said  Luther,  'to  secure  a  suitable  disposition  and  proper 
maintenance  for  ministers  and  preachers,  there  will  shortly 
be  neither  parsonages  nor  schools  worth  speaking  of,  and 
Divme  "Worship  and  the  Word  of  God  will  come  utterly  to 
an  end.' 

The  first  question  was  to  estabhsh  the  principles  on 
which  a  new  organisation  of  the  Church  should  be  based. 

The  earlier  opmions  expressed  by  Luther,  especially  in 
his  Address  to  the  German  Nobility,  might  have  led  one  to 


CONTINUED  LABOURS  AND  PERSONAL  LIFE.     351 

expect  that  the  new  Church  system  conformably  to  liis  ideas 
would  have  to  be  built  up,  to  use  a  modern  expression,  from 
below,  that  is  to  say,  on  the  basis  of  the  universal  priest- 
hood of  all  baptized  Christians,  who  should  now  therefore, 
after  hearing  and  receiving  the  Word  of  the  Gospel,  have 
proceeded  to  organise  and  embody  themselves  into  a  new 
community.  Luther  had  also,  in  that  treatise,  as  we  have 
seen,  allotted  certain  duties  to  the  civil  authorities  in  regard 
even  to  ecclesiastical  matters  ;  and  it  was  now  from  profound 
and  painful  conviction  that  he  confessed  that  the  great  bulk 
of  the  people  were  as  yet  not  genuine  Christians,  but  needed 
public  means  of  attraction  to  draw  them  to  Christianity. 
Later  on  we  met  with  his  idea  of  a  '  German  Mass,'  involving 
a  voluntary  union  and  assembly  of  genuine  Christians,  as 
explained  by  him  three  years  before  in  a  sermon.  There 
were  elements  here  at  least,  one  might  have  thought,  suffi- 
cient to  constitute  an  independent  system  of  congregations. 
Shortly  afterwards,  in  October  1526,  a  Hessian  synod, 
convoked  by  the  Landgrave  Philip  at  Homberg,  actually 
adopted  the  draft  of  a  constitution,  which  provided  that 
those  Christians  who  acknowledged  the  Word  of  God  should 
voluntarily  enrol  themselves  as  members  of  a  Christian 
Evangelical  Brotherhood  or  congregation,  who  should  elect 
in  assembly  their  pastors  and  bishops,  and  that  the  latter, 
together  with  other  deputies,  should  constitute  a  general 
synod  for  the  national  Church.  But  Luther,  true  to  his 
conviction,  previously  expressed,  that  there  were  not  the 
men  fitted  for  such  an  institution,  stated  now  his  opinion  to 
Philip,  that  he  had  not  the  boldness  to  carry  out  such  a 
heap  of  regulations,  and  that  people  were  not  as  fit  for  them 
as  those  who  sat  and  made  the  regulations  imagined. 
Moreover  he  could  not  tolerate  the  idea  that  the  mass  of 
those  who  remained  outside  this  community,  and  who  were 
looked  upon,  according  to  the  Homberg  scheme,  as  heathens, 
should  be  left  to  their  fate,  without  preachers  of  the  Word,  and 
above  all,  without  either  baptism  or  the  Christian  education 


352  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

of  their  children.  Added  to  this,  he  adhered  strenuously 
to  his  belief,  which  we  have  noticed  long  before,  that 
certain  duties  with  reference  to  religion  and  the  Church 
were  incumbent  on  the  civil  authorities,  the  princes  and 
magistrates,  in  common  with  all  the  rest  of  Christendom. 
It  was  their  duty,  he  declared  in  those  earlier  writings  of 
his,  to  prohibit,  by  force  if  necessary,  the  proceedings  of 
those  priests  who  were  hostile  to  the  gospel.  He  now 
applied  the  idea  and  definition  of  external,  idolatrous 
practices  to  the  Papal  system  of  public  worship  and  the 
sacrifice  of  the  mass.  To  suppress  these  practices,  he 
said,  was  the  duty  of  those  authorities  who  watched  over  the 
external  relations  of  life  :  such  was  his  demand  against  the 
Catholics  at  Altenburg.  On  the  other  hand,  this  province 
of  external  life  and  external  regulations  embraced  also  the 
material  means  required  for  the  external  maintenance  of 
the  Church.  And  it  was  only  a  step  further  for  those 
authorities  to  forbid  any  public  exposition  of  doctrines  which 
they  found  to  be  at  variance  with  the  Word  of  God,  and 
to  appoint  also  preachers  of  that  Word  ;  nay,  to  undertake, 
in  short,  the  establishment  and  preservation  of  the  consti- 
tution of  the  Church,  so  far  as  the  same  was  external,  and 
necessary,  and  incapable  of  being  established  by  any  other 
power.  The  Elector  John  himself  had  already,  on  August  16, 
1525,  announced  at  his  palace  of  Weimar  to  the  assembled 
clergy  of  the  district,  *  that  the  gospel  should  be  preached, 
pure  and  simple,  without  any  additions  by  man.' 

Under  such  circumstances,  and  starting  with  such  views, 
Luther  now  urged  the  Elector  to  take  in  hand  a  compre- 
hensive regulation  of  the  Church.  As  soon  as  he  had  dis- 
charged his  duties  at  the  university  and  completed  his  new 
Church  Service  in  German,  he  turned  his  efforts  to  a 
general  '  Keform  of  parishes.'  This,  as  he  said  in  a  letter 
at  the  end  of  September,  was  now  the  stumbling-block 
before  him.  On  October  31,  1525,  the  anniversary  of  his 
ninety-five  theses,  he  represented  to  the  Elector  that,  now 


CONTINUED   LABOURS  AND  PERSONAL   LIEL.  353 

that  the  reorganisation  of  the  university  and  the  regulation 
of  i^ubhc  ^yorship  had  been  completed,  there  still  remained 
two  points  which  demanded  the  attention  and  care  of 
his  Highness,  as  the  supreme  temporal  authority  in  his 
country.  One  of  these  was  the  miserable  condition  of 
the  parishes  in  general ;  the  other  was  the  proposal  that 
the  Elector,  as  Luther  had  already  advised  him  at  Witten- 
berg, should  institute  an  inspection  also  of  the  civil  ad- 
ministration of  his  councillors  and  officials,  about  which 
there  were  everywhere  complaints  both  in  the  towns  and 
country  districts.  With  regard  to  the  first  point,  he  went 
on  to  explain,  on  receiving  a  gracious  reply  from  the  Elector, 
that  the  people  who  wished  to  have  an  evangelical  preacher 
should  themselves  be  made  to  contribute  the  additional  in- 
come required ;  and  he  proposed  that  the  country  should 
be  divided  into  four  or  five  districts,  each  of  which  should 
be  visited  by  two  commissioners  appointed  by  the  prince. 
He  then  proceeded  to  consider  the  external  maintenance 
of  the  parochial  clergy,  and  the  means  necessary  for  that 
purpose.  He  suggested  further  that  ministers  advanced  in 
years,  or  unfit  to  preach,  but  otherwise  of  pious  life  and 
conduct,  should  be  instructed  to  read  aloud,  in  person  or 
by  deputy,  the  Gospel,  together  with  the  Postills  or  short 
homilies.  With  regard  to  those  parishes  where  the  appoint- 
ment of  an  evangelical  preacher  was  a  matter  of  indifference 
or  of  actual  repugnance,  he  expressed  at  present  no  opinion  ;. 
but  in  his  later  proposals  he  assumed  the  establishment  of 
evangelical  preachers  throughout  the  country.  He  expresses 
his  conviction  that  the  Elector  wdll  give  his  services  to  God 
in  these  reforms  of  the  Church,  as  a  faithful  instrument  in 
His  hands,  '  because,'  as  he  says,  *  your  Highness  is  en- 
treated and  demanded  to  do  so  by  us,  and  by  the  pressing 
need  itself,  and,  therefore,  assuredly  by  God.' 

Readily  as  the  Elector  John  listened  to  Luther's  words 
and  exhortations,  fie  found  it  difficult,  nevertheless,  to 
initiate  at  once  so  vast  an  undertaking  as  was  imposed 

A  A 


354  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 

upon  him.  Luther  was  well  aware,  as  he  himself  told 
John,  that  matters  of  importance  might  easily  be  delayed 
at  court,  '  through  the  overwhelming  press  of  business  ;  ' 
and  that  princely  households  had  much  to  do,  and  it  was 
necessary  to  importune  them  perseveringly.  He  knew  his 
prince— that  with  the  best  will  possible,  he  was  not  ener- 
getic enough  with  those  about  him  ;  and  among  the  latter 
he  suspected  that  many  were  indifferent  and  selfish  Vvith 
regard  to  matters  of  religion  and  the  Church.  The  task, 
however,  that  now  lay  before  him,  was  even  more  difficult 
and  involved  than  Luther  himself  had  imaghied  when  first 
shaping  and  propounding  his  idea. 

A  whole  year  went  by  before  the  project  was  taken  up 
comprehensively.  Only  in  the  district  of  Borna,  in  January 
1526,  was  an  inspection  of  parishes  effected  by  Spalatin 
and  a  civil  official  of  the  prince;  and  another  one  was 
held  during  Lent  in  the  Thuringian  district  of  Tenneberg, 
in  which  Luther's  friend  Myconius  of  Gotha,  afterwards 
one  of  the  most  prominent  Keformers  in  Thuringia,  took 
an  active  part.  Meantime,  however,  the  clergy  in  general 
received  directions  from  the  Elector  to  perform  public 
worship  in  the  manner  prescribed  by  Luther's  '  German 
Mass.' 

Li  the  course  of  the  summer  the  development  of  the 
general  affairs  of  the  Empire  enabled  the  desired  co-opera- 
tion of  the  civil  authorities  in  the  work  of  Reformation  to 
be  established  on  a  basis  of  law.  And  yet,  just  now,  the 
situation,  as  regards  the  Evangelical  cause,  had  become 
more  critical  than  at  any  previous  time  since  the  Diet  of 
Worms.  For  the  Emperor  Charles  had  terminated,  by  a 
brillia.nt  victory,  the  war  with  France,  which  had  compelled 
him  to  let  his  Edict  remain  dormant ;  and  the  peace  con- 
cluded with  the  captured  King  Francis,  in  January  1526, 
at  Madrid,  was  designated  by  the  two  monarchs  as  being 
intended  to  enable  them  to  take  up  their  Christian  arms  in 
common  for  the  expulsion  of  the  infidels  and  the  extirpation 


CO.\TIXUED   LA  nor  RS  AXn   rKKSOAAL   LIFE. 


355 


of  the  Lutheran  and  other  heresies.  The  Emperor  issued 
an  admonition  to  certain  princes  of  Germany,  bidding 
them  take  measures  accordingly,  and  a  number  of  them 
held  a  conference  together  on  the  subject.  Against  the 
danger  thus  threatening,  the  Evangelical  party  formed  the 
League  of  Torgau.  But  no  sooner  was  King  Francis  at 
liberty  and  back  in  France,  than  he  broke  the  peace  so 
solemnly  contracted.  Pope  Clement,  to  whom  this  peace 
had  offered  such  a  splendid  prospect  of  purifying  and 
uniting  Christendom,  set  more  store  by  his  political  in- 
terests and  temporal  possessions  in  Italy,  which  formed  a 
subject  of  such  jealous  rivalry  and  contention  between 
himself,  the  Emperor,  and  the  King.  Terrified  at  the  over- 
whelming power  of  the  Emperor,  the  Holy  Father  made  use 
of  his  Divine  credentials  to  absolve  the  French  king  from 
his  oath,  and  himself  concluded  a  warlike  alliance  with 
him  against  Charles,  which  went  by  the  name  of  the  '  Holy 
League.'  Myconius  remarked  of  this  compact  that  '  what- 
ever Popes  do  must  be  called  most  holy,  for  so  holy  are 
they  that  even  God,  the  Gospel,  and  all  the  world,  must  lie 
at  their  feet.'  Meanwhile,  the  Turks  from  the  East  were 
advancing  on  Germany.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  a  Diet 
at  Spires,  which  seemed  originally  to  have  been  summoned 
for  the  final  execution  of  the  Edict  of  Worms,  led  to  the 
Imperial  Piecess  of  August  27,  1526,  wherein  it  was  de- 
clared that  until  the  General,  or  at  least  National  Council  of 
the  Church,  which  was  prayed  for,  should  be  convoked, 
each  State  should,  in  all  matters  appertaining  to  the  Edict 
of  Worms,  '  so  live,  rule,  and  bear  itself  as  it  thought  it 
could  answer  it  to  God  and  the  Emperor.' 

Luther  now  turned  again,  on  November  22,  1526,  to 
John,  '  not  having  laid  for  a  long  while  any  supplication 
before  his  Electoral  Highness.'  The  peasants,  he  said,  were 
so  unruly,  and  so  ungrateful  for  the  Word  of  God,  that  he 
had  almost  a  mind  to  let  them  go  on  living  like  pigs,  without 
a  preacher,  only  then-  poor  young  children,  at  any  rate,  must 

A    A    2 


356  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 

be  cared  for.  He  laid  down  in  this  letter  some  important 
principles  concerning  the  duty  of  the  civil  power  and  the 
State.  The  prince,  he  declared,  was  the  supreme  guardian 
of  the  young,  and  of  all  who  required  his  protection.  All 
towns  and  villages  that  could  afford  the  means,  should  be 
compelled  to  keep  schools  and  preachers,  just  as  they  were 
compelled  to  pay  taxes  for  bridges,  roads,  and  other  local 
requirements.  In  support  of  this  demand,  he  appealed  to 
the  direct  command  of  God,  and  to  the  universal  state  of 
destitution  prevailing.  If  that  duty  were  neglected,  the 
country  would  be  full  of  vagrant  savages.  With  regard  to 
the  convents  and  other  religious  foundations,  he  stated  that, 
as  soon  as  the  Papal  yoke  had  been  removed  from  the  land, 
they  w^ould  pass  over  to  the  prince  as  the  supreme  head ; 
and  it  would  then  become  his  duty,  however  onerous,  to 
regulate  such  matters,  since  no  one  else  would  have  the 
power  to  do  so.  He  particularly  warned  the  Elector  not 
to  allow  the  nobles  to  appropriate  the  property  of  the  con- 
vents, '  as  is  talked  of  already,  and  as  some  of  them  are 
actually  doing.'  They  were  founded,  he  said,  for  the  service 
of  God :  whatever  was  superfluous  might  be  applied  by  the 
Elector  to  the  exigencies  of  the  state  or  the  relief  of  the 
poor.  To  his  friends  Luther  complained  with  grief  and 
bitterness  of  some  courtiers  of  the  Elector,  who  after 
having  always  shut  their  ears  to  religion  and  the  gospel, 
were  now  chuckling  over  the  rich  spoils  in  prospect,  and 
laughing  at  evangelical  liberty. 

The  work  now  commenced  in  real  earnest.  The  Elector 
had  the  necessary  regulations  prepared  at  Wittenberg,  at 
a  conference  between  his  chancellor  Brück,  Luther,  and 
others.  In  February  1527  visitors  were  appointed,  and 
among  them  was  Melancthon.  They  began  their  labours 
at  once  in  the  district  to  which  Wittenberg  belonged,  but 
of  their  proceedings  here  nothing  further  is  known.  In 
July  the  first  visitation  on  a  large  scale  took  place  in 
Thuringia. 


CONTINUED  LABOURS  AND  PERSONAL  LIFE.  357 

Just  at  this  time,  however,  Luther  was  overtaken  by 
severe  bodily  suffering  and  also  by  troubles  at  homo,  while 
the  visitation  and  the  academical  life  at  Wittenberg  had  to 
experience  an  interruption. 

Luther's  first  year  of  married  life  had  been  one  of  hap- 
piness. Symptoms  of  a  physical  disorder,  the  stone,  had 
appeared,  however,  even  then,  and  in  after  years  became 
extremely  painful  and  dangerous. 

On  June  7,  1526,  as  he  announced  to  his  friend  Eühel, 
his  '  dear  Kate  brought  him,  by  the  great  mercy  of  God,  a 
little  Hans  Luther,' — her  firstborn.  With  joy  and  thank- 
fulness, as  he  says  in  another  letter,  they  now  reaped  the 
fruit  and  blessings  of  married  life,  w^hereof  ihe  Pope  and 
his  creatures  were  not  worthy. 

Amidst  all  his  various  labours  in  theology  and  for  the 
Church,  and  in  preparing  for  the  visitation,  he  took  his 
share  in  the  cares  of  his  household,  laid  out  the  garden 
attached  to  his  quarters  at  the  convent,  had  a  well  made, 
and  ordered  seeds  from  Nuremberg  through  his  friend 
Link,  and  radishes  from  Erfurt.  He  wrote  at  the  same 
time  to  Link  for  tools  for  turning,  which  he  wished  to  prac- 
tise with  his  servant  Wolf  or  Wolfgang  Sieberger,  as  the 
'  Wittenberg  barbarians  '  were  too  much  behind  in  the  art ; 
and  he  was  anxious,  in  case  the  world  should  no  longer  care 
to  maintain  him  as  a  minister  of  the  Word,  .to  learn  how  to 
gain  a  livelihood  by  his  handiwork. 

Early  in  January  1527  he  was  seized  with  a  sudden  rush 
of  blood  to  the  heart.  It  nearly  i^roved  fatal  at  the  moment, 
but  fortunately  soon  passed  away.  An  attack  of  illness, 
accompanied  by  deep  oppression  and  anxiety  of  mind,  and 
the  effects  of  which  long  remained,  followed  on  July  6.  On 
the  morning  of  that  day,  being  seized  with  anguish  of  the 
soul,  he  sent  for  his  faithful  friend  and  confessor  Bugen- 
hagen,  listened  to  his  words  of  comfort  from  the  13il)le,  and 
with  persevering  prayer  commended  himself  and  his  beloved 
ones  to  God.     At  Bugenhagen's  advice,  he  then  went  to  a 


358  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

breakfast,  to  which  the  Elector's  hereditary  marshal,  Hans 
Löser,  had  invited  him.  He  ate  little  at  the  meal,  but  was 
as  cheerful  as  possible  to  his  companions.  After  it  was 
over,  he  sought  to  refresh  himself  with  conversation  with 
Jonas  in  his  garden,  and  invited  him  and  his  wife  to  spend 
the  evening  at  his  home.  On  then-  arrival,  however,  he 
complained  of  a  rushing  and  singing  noise,  like  the  waves 
of  the  sea,  in  his  left  ear,  and  which  afterwards  shot  through 
his  head  with  intolerable  pain,  like  a  tremendous  gust  of 
wind.  He  wished  to  go  to  bed,  but  fainted  away  by  the 
door  of  his  bedroom,  after  calling  aloud  for  water.  Cold 
water  having  been  poured  upon  him,  he  revived.  He 
began  to  pray  aloud,  and  talked  earnestly  of  spiritual 
things,  although  a  short  swoon  came  over  him  in  the 
interval.  The  physician  Augustin  Schürf,  who  was  called 
in,  ordered  his  body,  now  quite  cold,  to  be  warmed. 
Bugenhagen  too  was  sent  for  again.  Luther  thanked 
the  Lord  for  having  vouchsafed  to  him  the  knowledge  of 
His  holy  Name ;  God's  will  be  done,  whether  He  would  let 
him  die,  which  would  be  a  gain  to  himself,  or  allow  him  to 
live  on  still  longer  in  the  flesh,  and  work.  He  called  his 
friends  to  witness  that  up  to  his  end  he  was  certam  of 
having  taught  the  truth  according  to  the  command  of  God. 
He  assured  his  wife,  with  words  of  comfort,  that  in  spite  of 
all  the  gossip  of  the  blind  world  she  was  his  wife,  and  he 
exhorted  her  to  rest  solely  on  God's  Word.  He  then 
asked,  '  Where  is  my  darling  little  Hans  ?  '  The  child 
smiled  at  his  father,  who  commended  him  with  his  mother 
to  the  God  who  is  the  Father  of  the  fatherless  and  judges 
the  cause  of  the  widow.  He  pointed  to  some  silver  cups 
which  had  been  given  him,  and  which  he  wished  to 
leave  his  wife.  '  You  know,'  he  added,  '  we  have  nothing 
else.'  After  a  profuse  perspiration  he  grew  better,  and  the 
next  day  he  was  able  to  get  up  to  meals.  He  said  after- 
wards that  he  thought  he  was  dying,  in  the  hands  of  his 
wife  and  his  friends,  but  that  the  spiritual  paroxysm  which 


COXTIXUED   LABOURS  AND   PERSONAL   LJFE. 


359 


had  preceded  had  been  something  far  more  difficult  for 
him  to  bear. 

Luther,  after  recovering  from  this  attack,  still  com- 
plained of  ^Yeakness  in  the  head,  and  his  inward  oppres- 
sion and  spiritual  anguish  was  renewed  and  became  inten- 
sified. On  August  2  he  told  Melancthon,  who  was  then 
busy  with  his  visitation  in  Thuringia,  that  he  had  been 
tossed  about  for  more  than  a  week  in  the  agonies  of  death 
and  hell,  and  that  his  limbs  still  trembled  in  consequence. 

Whilst  he  was  still  in  this  state  of  suffering,  news  came 
that  the  plague  was  approaching  Wittenberg,  nay,  had 
actually  broken  out  in  the  town.  It  is  well  known  how 
this  fearful  scourge  had  repeatedly  raged  in  German}^  and 
how  ruinous  it  had  been,  from  the  panic  which  preceded 
and  accompanied  it.  The  university,  from  fear  of  the 
epidemic,  was  now  removed  to  Jena. 

Luther  resolved,  however,  together  with  Bugenhagen, 
whom  he  was  assisting  as  preacher,  to  remain  loyally  with 
the  congregation,  who  now  more  than  ever  required  his 
spiritual  aid ;  although  his  Elector  wrote  in  person  to  him 
saying, '  We  should  for  many  reasons,  as  well  as  for  your  own 
good,  be  loth  to  see  you  separated  from  the  university.  .  .  . 
Do  us  then  the  .favour.'  He  wrote  to  a  friend,  '  We  are 
not  alone  here ;  but  Christ,  and  your  prayers,  and  the 
prayers  of  all  the  saints,  together  with  the  holy  angels,  are 
with  us.' 

The  plague  had  really  broken  out,  though  not  with  that 
violence  which  the  universal  panic  would  have  led  one  to 
suppose.  Luther  soon  counted  eighteen  corpses,  which  were 
buried  near  his  house  at  the  Elster  Gate.  The  epidemic 
advanced  from  the  Fishers'  sulmrb  into  the  centre  of  the 
town  :  here  the  first  victim  carried  off  by  it,  died  almost  in 
Luther's  arms  -the  wife  of  the  burgomaster  Tilo  Denes. 
To  his  friends  elsewhere  Luther  sent  comforting  reports, 
and  repressed  all  exaggerated  accounts.  His  friend  Hess 
at  Breslau  asked  him  '  if  it  was  befitting  a  Christian  man 


36o  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

to  fly  when  death  threatened  him.'  Luther  answered  him 
in  a  pubHc  letter,  setting  forth  the  whole  duty  of  Christians 
in  this  respect.  Of  the  students,  a  few  at  any  rate  re- 
mained at  Wittenberg.  For  these  he  now  began  a  new 
course  of  lectures. 

Luther's  spiritual  sufferings  continued  to  afflict  him  for 
several  months,  and  until  the  close  of  the  year.  Though 
he  had  known  them,  he  said,  from  his  youth,  he  could 
never  have  expected  that  they  would  prove  so  severe.  He 
found  them  very  similar  to  those  attacks  and  struggles 
which  he  had  had  to  endure  in  early  life.  The  invasion  of 
the  plague,  and  the  parting  from  all  his  intimate  friends 
except  Bugenhagen,  must  have  contributed  to  increase 
them. 

He  was  just  now  deeply  shocked  and  agitated  by  the 
news  of  the  death  of  a  faithful  companion  in  the  faith,  the 
Bavarian  minister  Leonard  Käser  or  Kaiser,  who  was 
publicly  burnt  on  August  16,  1527,  in  the  town  of 
Scherding.  Luther  broke  out,  as  he  had  done  after  Henry 
of  Ziitphen's  martyrdom,  into  a  lamentation  of  his  own 
unworthiness  compared  with  such  heroes.  He  published 
an  account  of  Leonard  and  his  end,  which  had  been  sent 
him  by  Michael  Stiefel,  adding  a  preface  and  conclusion  of 
his  own.  About  the  same  time  he  composed  a  consolatory 
tract  for  the  Evangelical  congi-egation  at  Halle-on-the- 
Saale,  whose  minister  Winkler  had  been  murdered  in  the 
previous  April. 

In  the  autumn  a  new  controversial  treatise  was 
published  against  him  by  Erasmus,  which  he  rightly 
described  as  a  product  of  snakes ;  and  he  now  stood  in 
the  midst  of  the  contest  between  Zwingli  and  Oecolam- 
padius.  He  exclaimed  once  in  a  letter  to  Jonas,  *  0  that 
Erasmus  and  the  Sacramentarians  (Zwingli  and  his 
friends)  could  only  for  a,  quarter  of  an  hour  know  the 
misery  of  my  heart.  I  am  certain  that  they  would  then 
honestly   be   converted.     Now  my  enemies   live,   and    are 


CONTINUED   LABOURS  AND  PERSONAL   LIFE.  -/,i 


mighty,  and  heap  sorrow  on  sorrow  upon  me,  whom  God 
has  ah-eady  crushed  to  the  earth.' 

The  pestilence  soon  reached  his  friends.  The  wife  of 
the  physician  Schürf,  who  was  then  Hving  in  the  same 
house  with  him,  was  attacked  by  it,  and  only  recovered 
slowly  towards  the  beginning  of  November.  At  the 
parsonage  the  wife  of  the  chaplain  or  deacon  George 
Eurer  succumbed  to  it  on  November  2,  whereupon  Luther 
took  Bugenhagcn  and  his  family  from  the  panic-stricken 
house  into  his  own  dwelling.  But  soon  after  dangerous 
symptoms  showed  themselves  with  a  friend,  Margaret 
Mocha,  who  was  then  staying  with  Luther's  family,  and 
she  was  actually  ill  unto  death.  His  own  wife  was  then 
near  her  confinement.  Luther  was  the  more  concerned 
about  her,  as  Rörer's  wife,  when  in  the  same  condition, 
had  sickened  and  died.  But  Frau  Luther  remained,  as  he 
says,  firm  in  the  faith,  and  retained  her  health.  Finally, 
towards  the  end  of  October  his  little  son  Hans  fell  ill,  and 
for  twelve  whole  days  would  not  eat.  When  the  anniversary 
of  the  ninety-five  theses  came  round  again,  Luther  wrote 
to  Amsdorf  telling  him  of  these  troubles  and  anxieties,  and 
concluded  with  the  words:  'So  now  there  are  struggles 
without  and  terror  within.  .  .  It  is  a  comfort  which  we 
must  set  against  the  malice  of  Satan,  that  we  have 
the  Word  of  God,  whereby  to  sav6  the  souls  of  the  faithful, 
even  though  the  devil  devour  their  bodies.  .  .  Pray  for  us, 
that  we  may  endure  bravely  the  hand  of  the  Lord,  and 
overcome  the  power  and  craft  of  the  devil,  whether  it  be 
through  death  or  life.  Amen.  Wittenberg:  All  Saints' 
Day,  the  tenth  anniversary  of  the  death-blow  to  indul- 
gences, in  thankful  remembrance  whereof  we  are  now 
drinking  a  toast.' 

A  short  time  afterwards  Luther  was  able  to  send  Jonas 
somewhat  better  news  about  the  sickness  at  home,  though 
he  was  still  sighing  with  deep  inward  oppression;  'I  suffer,' 
he  said,  '  the  wrath  of  God,  because  T  have  sinned  in  His 


-.62  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


sight.  Pope,  Emperor,  princes,  bishops,  and  all  the  world 
hate  me,  and,  as  if  that  were  not  enough,  my  brethren  too 
(he  means  the  Sacramentarians)  must  needs  afflict  me. 
My  sins,  death,  Satan  with  all  his  angels— all  rage  un- 


FlG.  36. — LUTHEB. 

(From  a  Portrait  by  Cranacli  in  1528,  at  Berlin.) 

ceasingly;  and  what  could  comfort  me  if  Christ  were  to 
forsake  me,  for  Whose  sake  they  hate  me  ?  But  He  will 
never  forsake  the  poor  sinner.'  Then  follow  the  words 
above  quoted  about  Erasmus  and  the  Sacramentarians. 


CONTINUED   LABOURS  AND   PERSONAL   LIFE.  363 

Towards  the  middle  of  December  the  plague  gradually 
abated.  Luther  writes  from  home  on  the  tenth  of  that 
month  :  '  My  little  boy  is  well  and  happy  again.  Schürf 's 
wife  has  recovered,  Margaret  has  escaped  death  in  a  mar- 


Fm.  37.— Luther's  Wife. 
(From  a  Portrait  by  Cranach  in  1528,  at  Berlin.) 

vellous  manner.  We  have  offered  up  five  pigs,  which 
have  died,  on  behalf  of  the  sick.'  And  on  his  return  home 
this  day  to  dinner  from  his  lecture,  his  wife  was  safely 
delivered  of  a  little  daughter,  who  received  the  name  of 
Elizabeth. 


364  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

To  h-is  own  inward  sufferings  Luther  rose  superior  by 
the  strengthening  power  of  the  conviction  that  even  in 
these  his  Lord  and  Saviour  was  with  him,  and  that  God 
had  sent  them  for  his  own  good  and  that  of  others ;  that 
is  to  say,  for  his  own  discipHne  and  humbHng.  He  aj)pHed 
to  himself  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  *  As  dying,  and  behold  we 
live ; '  nay,  he  wished  not  to  be  freed  of  his  burden,  should 
his  God  and  Saviour  be  glorified  thereby. 

Luther's  famous  hymn,  ^m'  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott, 
appeared  for  the  first  time,  as  has  been  recently  proved,  in 
a  little  hymn-book,  about  the  beginning  of  the  following 
year.  We  can  see  in  it  indeed  a  proof  how  anxious  was 
that  time  for  Luther.  It  corresponds  with  his  words, 
already  quoted,  on  the  anniversary  of  the  Reformation. 

With  the  cessation  of  the  pestilence  and  the  return  of 
his  friends,  the  new  year  seems  to  have  brought  him  also 
a  salutary  change  in  his  physical  condition ;  for  his  suffer- 
ings, which  were  caused  by  impeded  circulation,  became 
sensibly  diminished. 

Since  the  outbreak,  and  during  the  continuance  of  the 
plague,  the  work  of  Church  visitation  had  been  suspended. 
Melancthon,  however,  who  had  followed  the  university  to 
Jena,  w^as  commissioned  meanwhile  to  pre^Dare  provisionally 
some  regulations  and  instructions  for  further  action  in 
this  matter,  and  in  August  Luther  received  the  articles 
which  he  had  drafted  for  his  examination  and  approval. 

These  articles  or  instructions  comprised  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  Evangelical  doctrine,  as  they  were 
henceforth  to  be  accepted  by  the  congregations.  They 
were  drawn  up  with  especial  regard  to  the  '  rough  common 
man,'  who  too  often  seemed  deficient  in  the  first  rudiments 
of  Christian  faith  and  life,  and  with  regard  also  to  many 
of  those  confessing  the  new  teaching,  who,  as  Melancthon 
perceived,  were  not  unfairly  accused  of  allowing  the  word 
of  saving  faith  to  be  made  a  '  cloak  of  maliciousness,'  and 
who  filled  their  sermons  rather  with  attacks  against  the 


CONTINUED  LABOURS  AND  PERSONAL  LIFE.  365 

Pope  than  with  words  of  edifying  purport.  Melancthon 
said  on  this  point,  '  those  who  fancy  they  have  conquered 
the  Pope,  have  not  really  conquered  the  Pope.'  And  whilst 
teaching  that  those  who  were  trouhled  about  their  sins  had 
only  to  have  faith  in  their  forgiveness  for  the  merits  of 
Christ,  to  be  justilied  in  the  sight  of  God  and  to  find  com- 
fort and  peace,  nevertheless,  he  would  have  the  people 
earnestly  and  specially  reminded  that  this  faith  could  not 
exist  without  true  repentance  and  the  fear  of  God ;  that 
such  comfort  could  only  be  felt  w^here  such  fear  was  pre- 
sent, and  that  to  achieve  this  end  God's  law,  with  its 
demands  and  threats  of  punishment,  would  effectually 
operate  upon  the  soul. 

Luther  himself  had  taught  very  explicitly,  and  in  ac- 
cordance with  his  own  experience  of  life,  that  the  faith 
which  saves  through  God's  joyful  message  of  grace  could 
only  ^rise  in  a  heart  already  bowed  and  humbled  by  the 
law  of  God,  and,  having  arisen,  was  bound  to  employ  itself 
actively  in  fruits  of  repentance ;  although,  in  stating  this 
doctrine,  he  had  not  perhaps  so  equally  adjusted  the  condi- 
tions, as  Melancthon  had  here  done.  An  outcr}^,  however, 
now  arose  from  among  the  Eomanists,  that  Melancthon  no 
longer  ventured  to  uphold  the  Lutheran  doctrine ;  of  course 
it  suited  their  interests  to  fling  a  stone  in  this  manner  at 
Luther  and  his  teaching.  But  what  was  far  more  im- 
portant, an  attack  w^as  raised  against  Melancthon  from  the 
circle  of  his  immediate  friends.  Agricola  of  Eisleben,  for  in- 
stance, would  not  hear  of  a  repentance  growing  out  of  such 
impressions  produced  by  the  Law  and  the  fear  of  punish- 
ment. The  conversion  of  the  sinner,  he  declared,  must 
proceed  solely  and  entirely  from  the  comforting  knowledge 
of  God's  love  and  grace,  as  revealed  in  His  message  to 
man :  thence,  further,  and  thence  alone,  came  the  proper 
fear  of  God,  a  fear,  not  of  His  punishment,  but  of  Himself. 
This  distinction  he  had  failed  to  find  in  Melancthon's  In- 
structions.    It  was  the  first  time  that  a  dogmatic  dispute 


366  RECONSTRUCTION   OF   THE   CHURCH. 

threatened  to  break  out  among  those  ^Yho  had  hitherto  stood 
really  united  on  the  common  ground  of  Lutheran  doctrine. 

Luther,  on  the  contrary,  approved  Melancthon's  draft, 
and  found  little  to  alter  in  it.  "What  his  opponents  said 
did  not  disturb  him  ;  he  quieted  the  doubts  of  the  Elector 
on  that  score.  Whoever  undertook  anything  in  God's  cause, 
he  said,  must  leave  the  devil  his  tongue  to  babble  and  tefi 
lies  against  it.  He  was  particularly  pleased  that  Melanc- 
thon  had  '  set  forth  ah  in  such  a  simple  manner  for  the 
common  people.'  Fine  distinctions  and  niceties  of  doctrine 
^Yere  out  of  place  in  such  a  work.  Even  Agricola,  who  wished 
to  be  more  Lutheran  than  Luther  himself,  was  silenced. 

Melancthon's  work,  after  having  been  subjected  by  the 
Elector  to  full  scrutiny  and  criticism  in  several  quarter^, 
was  pubKshed  by  his  command  in  March  1528,  with  a 
preface  written  by  Luther,  as  *  Instructions  of  the  Visitors 
to  the  parish  priests  in  the  Electorate  of  Saxony.'  In  this 
preface  Luther  pointed  out  how  important  and  necessary 
for  the  Church  was  such  a  supervision  and  visitation.  He 
explained,  as  the  reason  why  the  Elector  undertook  this 
office  and  sent  out  visitors,  that  since  the  bishops  and 
archbishops  had  proved  faithless  to  their  duty,  no  one  else 
had  been  found  whose  special  business  it  was,  or  who  had 
any  orders  to  attend  to  such  matters.  Accordingly,  the 
local  sovereign,  as  the  temporal  authority  ordained  by  God, 
had  been  requested  to  render  this  service  to  the  gospel, 
out  of  Christian  charity,  smce,  in  his  capacity  as  civil  ruler, 
he  was  under  no  obligation  to  do  so.  In  like  manner, 
Luther  afterwards  described  the  Evangelical  sovereigns  as 
'  Makeshift-bishops  '  {Xothhischo/e).  At  the  same  time  the 
instructions  for  visitation  introduced  now  in  the  smaller 
districts  the  office  of  superintendent  as  one  of  permanent 
supervision. 

In  the  course  of  the  summer  preparations  were  made 
for  a  visitation  on  a  large  scale,  embracing  the  whole 
country.    The  original  intention  had  been  to  deal,  by  means 


CONTINUED  LABOURS  AND  PERSONAL  LIFE.  367 

of  one  commission,  with  the  various  districts  in  rotation. 
Such  a  course  would  have  necessarily  entailed,  as  was 
admitted,  much  delay  and  other  inconveniences.  A  more 
comprehensive  method  was  accordingly  adopted,  of  letting 
different  commissions  work  simultaneously  in  the  different 
districts.  Each  of  these  commissions  consisted  of  a  theo- 
logian and  a  few  laymen,  jurists,  and  councillors  of  state, 
or  other  officials.  Luther  was  appointed  head  of  the  commis- 
sion for  the  Electoral  district.  The  work  was  commenced 
earlier  in  some  districts  than  in  others.  Luther's  com- 
mission was  the  first  to  begin,  on  October  22,  and  apparently 
m  the  diocese  of  Wittenberg. 

Luther  had  already,  since  May  12,  voluntarily  under- 
taken a  new  and  onerous  labour.  Bugenhagen  had  left 
"Wittenberg  that  day  for  the  town  of  Brunswick,  where,  at 
the  desirs  of  the  local  magistracy,  he  carried  out  the  work 
of  reform  in  the  Church,  until  his  departure  in  October  for 
the  same  purpose  to  Hamburg,  where  he  remained  until 
the  following  June.  Luther  undertook  his  pastoral  duties 
in  his  absence,  and  preached  regularly  three  or  four  times  in 
the  week.  Nevertheless,  he  took  his  share  also  in  the  work 
of  visitation  ;  the  district  assigned  to  him  did  not  take  him 
very  far  away  from  Wittenberg.  He  remained  there, 
actively  engaged  in  this  work,  during  the  following  months, 
and  with  some  few  intervals,  up  to  the  spring.  From  the 
end  of  January  1529  he  again  suffered  for  some  weeks  from 
giddiness  and  a  rushing  noise  in  his  head ;  he  knew  not 
whether  it  was  exhaustion  or  the  buffeting  of  Satan,  and 
entreated  his  friends  for  their  prayers  on  his  behalf,  that 
he  might  continue  steadfast  in  the  faith. 

The  shortcomings  and  requirements  brought  to  light  by 
the  visitation  corresponded  to  what  Luther  had  expected. 
In  his  own  district  the  state  of  things  was  compara- 
tively favourable;  happily,  a  third  of  the  parishes  had 
the  Elector  for  their  patron,  and  in  the  towns  the  magis- 
trates had,  to  some  extent  at  least,  fulfilled  their   duties 


368  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

satisfactorily.  The  clergy,  for  the  most  part,  were  good 
enough  for  the  slender  demands  with  which,  under  existing 
circumstances,  their  parishioners  had  to  be  content.  But 
things  were  worse  in  many  other  parts  of  the  country.  A 
gross  example  of  the  rude  ignorance  then  prevailing,  not 
only  among  the  country  people,  but  even  among  the  clergy, 
was  found  in  a  village  near  Torgau,  where  the  old  priest 
was  hardly  able  to  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Creed, 
but  was  in  high  reputation  far  and  near  as  an  exorcist, 
and  did  a  brisk  business  in  that  line.  Priests  had  frequently 
to  be  ejected  for  gross  immorality,  drunkenness,  irregular 
marriages,  and  such  like  offences  ;  many  of  them  had  to 
be  forbidden  to  keep  beer-houses,  and  otherwise  to  practise 
worldly  callings.  On  the  other  hand,  we  hear  of  scarcely 
any  priests  so  addicted  to  the  Eomish  system  as  to  put  diffi- 
culties in  the  w^ay  of  the  visitors.  Poverty  and  destitution, 
so  Luther  reports,  were  found  everywhere.  The  worst 
feature  was  the  primitive  ignorance  of  the  common  people, 
not  only  in  the  country  but  partly  also  in  the  towns.  We 
are  told  of  one  place  where  the  peasants  did  not  know  a 
single  prayer  ;  and  of  another,  where  they  refused  to  learn 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  because  it  was  too  long.  Village  schools 
were  universally  rare.  The  visitors  had  to  be  satisfied  if 
the  children  were  taught  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Creed, 
and  the  Ten  Commandments  by  the  clerk.  A  knowledge 
of  these  at  least  was  required  for  admission  to  the  Com- 
munion. 

Luther  in  the  course  of  his  visitations  mixed  freely  with 
the  people,  in  the  practical,  energetic,  and  hearty  manner  so 
peculiar  to  himself. 

For  the  clergy,  who  needed  a  model  for  their  preaching, 
and  for  the  congregations  to  whom  their  pastors,  owing  to 
their  own  incompetence,  had  to  preach  the  sermons  of 
others,  nothing  more  suitable  for  this  purpose  could  be 
offered  than  Luther's  Church-Postills.  Its  use,  where 
necessary,  was  recommended.     It  had  shortly  before  been 


CONTINUED  LABOURS  AND  PERSONAL  LIFE.    36, 

completed ;  that  is  to  say,  after  Luther  m  1525  had  finished 
the  portion  for  the  winter  half-year,  his  friend  Koth,  of 
Z^Yickau,  brought  out  in  1527  a  complete  edition  of  sermons 
for  the  Sundays  of  the  summer  half-year,  and  all  the  feast- 
days  and  holidays,  compiled  from  printed  copies  and  manu- 
scrij)ts  of  detached  sermons. 

The  most  urgent  task,  however,  that  Luther  now  felt 
himself  bound  to  perform,  was  the  compilation  of  a 
Catechism  suitable  for  the  people,  and,  above  all,  for  the 
young.  Four  years  before,  he  had  endeavoured  to  encourage 
friends  to  write  one.  His  *  German  Mass  '  of  1526  said : 
'  The  first  thmg  wanted  for  German  public  worship  is  a 
rough,  simple,  good  Catechism ;  '  and  further  on  in  tkat 
treatise  he  declared  that  he  knew  of  no  better  way  of 
imparting  such  Christian  mstruction,  than  by  means  of 
the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Creed,  and  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
for  they  summed  up,  briefly  and  simply,  almost  all  that 
was  necessary  for  a  Christian  to  know. 

He  now  took  in  hand  at  once,  early  in  1529,  and  amidst 
all  the  business  of  the  visitations,  a  larger  work,  which  was 
intended  to  mstruct  the  clergy  how  to  understand  and  explain 
those  three  main  articles  of  the  faith,  and  also  the  doctrines 
of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  This  work  is  his  so- 
called  '  Greater  Catechism,'  originally  entitled  simply  the 
'  German  Catechism.' 

Sliortly  afterwards  followed  the  'Little  Catechism,' — 
called  also  the  *  Enchiridion ' — which  contains  in  an 
abbreviated  form,  adapted  to  children  and  simple  under- 
standings, the  contents  of  his  larger  work,  set  out  here  in 
the  form  of  question  and  answer.  *  I  have  been  induced 
and  compelled,'  says  Luther  in  his  introduction,  *  to  com- 
press this  Catechism,  or  Christian  teaching,  into  this 
modest  and  simple  form,  by  the  wretched  and  lamentable 
state  of  spiritual  destitution  which  I  have  recently  in  my 
visitations  found  to  prevail  among  the  people.  God  help 
me !  how  much  misery  have   I  seen  !     The  common  folk, 

B  B 


370  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

especially  the  villagers,  know  absolutely  nothing  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  and  alas,  many  of  the  parish  priests  are 
almost  too  ignorant  or  incapable  to  teach  them  ! '  He  en- 
treats therefore  his  brother  clergymen  to  take  pity  on  the 
people,  to  assist  in  bringing  home  the  Catechism  to  them, 
and  more  particularly  to  the  young ;  and  to  this  end,  if  no 
better  way  commended  itself,  to  take  these  forms  before 
them,  and  explain  them  word  by  word. 

For  the  use  of  the  pastors,  he  added  to  this  Catechism  a 
short  tract  on  Marriage,  and  in  the  second  edition,  which  fol- 
lowed immediately  after,  he  subjoined  a  reprint  of  his  treatise 
on  Baptism,  which  he  had  published  three  years  before. 

The  Catechism  met  the  requirements  of  simple  minds 
and  of  a  Christian's  ordinary  daily  life,  by  providing  also 
forms  of  prayer  for  rising,  going  to  bed,  and  eating,  and 
lastly  a  manual  for  households,  with  Scriptural  texts  for  all 
classes.     This  ends  with  the  words — 

Let  each  his  lesson  learn  to  spell, 
And  then  his  house  will  prosper  well. 

To  the  clergy,  in  particular,  Luther  addressed  himself, 
that  they  might  imbue  the  people  in  this  manner  with 
Christian  truth.  But  he  wished  also,  as  he  said,  to  instruct 
every  head  of  a  household  how  to  *  set  forth  that  truth 
simply  and  clearly  to  his  servants,'  and  teach  them  to  pray, 
and  to  thank  God  for  His  blessings. 

The  contents  of  the  Catechism  were  carefully  confined 
to  the  highest,  simplest,  and  thoroughly  practical  truths  of 
Christian  teaching,  without  any  trace  or  feature  of  polemics. 
In  its  composition,  as  for  instance,  in  his  exposition  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  in  his  small  prayers  above  men- 
tioned, he  availed  himself  of  old  materials.  How  excellently 
this  Catechism,  with  its  originality  and  clearness,  its  depth 
and  simplicity,  responded  to  the  wants  not  only  of  his  own 
time,  but  of  after  generations,  has  been  proved  by  its  having 
remained  in  use  for  centuries,  and  amid  so  many  different 


CONTINUED  LABOURS  AND  PERSONAL  LIEE.     371 

ranks  of  life  and  such  various  degrees  of  culture.  Except 
his  translation  of  the  Bible,  this  little  book  of  Luther  is  the 
most  important  and  practically  useful  legacy  which  he  has 
bequeathed  to  his  people. 

The  visitations  were  over  when  the  two  Catechisms  ap- 
peared, although  they  had  not  yet  been  held  in  all  the 
parishes.  Events  of  another  kind  and  dangers  threatening 
elsewhere  now  demanded  the  first  attention  of  the  Elector 
and  the  Eeformers. 


372  RECONSTKUCTJOA   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


CHAPTEE  III. 

ERASMUS   AND    HENRY   VIII. CONTROVERSY   WITH    ZWINGLI    AND 

HIS   FOLLOWERS,    UP   TO    1Ö28. 

Luther's  controversy  with  Erasmus,  the  most  important  of 
the  champions  of  CathoHc  Churchdom,  had  terminated,  it 
will  be  remembered,  so  far  as  Luther  was  concerned,  with 
his  treatise  '  On  the  Bondage  of  the  Will.'  To  the  new 
tract  which  Erasmus  published  against  him,  in  two  parts, 
in  1526  and  1527,  and  v/hich,  though  insignificant  in  sub- 
stance, was  violent  and  insulting  enough  in  tone,  Luther 
made  no  reply.  Erasmus,  nevertheless,  to  the  pleasure  of 
himself  and  his  patrons  in  high  places,  continued  his  viru- 
lent attacks  on  the  Reformation,  which  was  bringing  ruin, 
he  declared,  on  the  noble  arts  and  letters,  and  carrying 
anarchy  into  the  Church,  while  he  himself,  in  his  own 
mediating  manner,  and  in  the  sense  and  with  the  help  of 
the  temporal  rulers,  was  doing  his  best  to  promote  certain 
reforms  in  the  Church,  within  the  pale  of  the  ancient  system, 
and  on  its  proper  hierarchical  basis.  On  what  principles, 
however,  that  basis  was  established,  and  the  Divine  rights 
of  the  hierarchy  reposed,  he  wisely  abstained,  now  as  he 
had  done  before,  from  explaining.  In  Luther's  eyes  he  was 
merely  a  refined  Epicurean,  who  had  inward  doubts  about 
religion  and  Christianity,  and  treated  both  with  disdain. 

Luther's  letter  to  Henry  YIIL,  which  we  have  noticed  in 
an  earlier  chapter,  took  a  long  time  before  it  reached  the 
King,  and  before  the  latter  could  send  an  answer  to  it. 
The  writing  of  that  answer  must  have  given  his  royal 
adversary  much  satisfaction;    it  turned  out  a  good   deal 


ERASMUS,  HENRY  VII I.,  AND  THE  ZWINGLIANS.   yjz 

cocarser  than  even  the  one  from  Duke  George;  Luther's 
marriage  in  particuhir  afforded  Henry  an  occasion  for 
insulting  language.  Emser  published  it  in  German  early 
hi  1527,  adding  some  vituperations  and  falsehoods  of  his 
o^Yn.  Luther's  only  object  in  replying  was  to  dissipate 
any  impressioji  that  he  had  ever  declared  to  Henry  hin 
readiness  to  recant.  His  reply  consisted  of  a  few  but 
powerfully  written  pages.  He  pointed  out  that  in  his 
letter  he  had  expressly  excepted  his  doctrines  from  any 
offer  of  retractation ;  upon  these  doctrines  he  took  his  stand, 
let  kings  and  the  devil  do  their  worst.  Beyond  these  he 
had  nothing  which  so  encouraged  his  heart,  and  gave  him 
such  strength  and  joy.  To  the  personal  insults  and  impu- 
tations of  sensuality  and  so  forth,  which  Henry  VIH.,  this 
man  of  unbridled  passions,  had  poured  upon  him,  he  replied 
that  he  was  well  aware  that,  in  regard  to  his  personal  life, 
he  was  a  poor  sinner,  and  that  he  was  glad  his  enemies  were 
all  saints  and  angels.  He  added,  however,  that  though  he 
knew  himself  to  be  a  sinner  before  God  and  his  dear 
Christian  brethren,  he  wished  at  the  same  time  to  be 
vh'tuous  before  the  world,  and  that  virtuous  he  was — so 
much  so  that  his  enemies  were  not  worthy  to  unloose  the 
latchet  of  his  shoes.  With  regard  to  his  letter  to  Henry  he 
acknowledged  that  in  this,  as  in  his  letter  to  Duke  George, 
and  others,  he  had  Ijeen  tempted  to  make  a  foolish  trial  of 
humility.  '  I  am  a  fool,  and  remain  a  fool,  for  putting  faith 
so  lightly  in  others.' 

Luther  reverts  in  this  reply  to  enemies  of  a  different 
sort,  who  make  his  heart  still  heavier.  These  are  to  him 
his  *  tender  children,'  his  '  little  brothers,'  his  '  golden  littk" 
friends,  the  spirits  of  faction  and  the  fanatics,'  who  would 
not  have  known  anything  worth  knowing  either  of  Christ 
or  of  the  gospel,  if  Luther  had  not  previously  written  about 
it.  He  alluded,  in  particular,  to  the  new  '  Sacramentarians,' 
and  to  Zwingli  their  leader. 

Although  this  is  the  first  time  that  Zwhigli  makes   his 


374  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

appearance  in  the  history  of  Luther,  and  was  never  treated 
by  him  otherwise  than  as  a  new  offshoot  of  fanaticism,  it 
is  important,  in  order  to  understand  and  appreciate  him 
aright,  to  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that,  himself  only  a  few 
months  younger  than  Luther,  he  had  been  working  since 

1519  among  the  community  at  Zurich  as  an  mdependent 
and  progressive  Evangelical  Eeformer,  and  had  extended 
his  active  influence  over  Switzerland,  however  little  noticed 
he  had  been  at  Wittenberg. 

His  career  hitherto  had  been  made  easier  for  him  than 
was  the  case  with  Luther.  The  Grand  Council  of  the  city 
of  Zurich  not  only  afforded  him  their  protection,  but  in 

1520  decreed  full  liberty  to  preach  the  Gospels  and  Epistles 
of  the  Apostles  in  the  sense  he  ascribed  to  them,  and  in 
152B  formally  declared  their  acceptance  of  his  doctrines, 
and  abolished  all  idolatrous  practices.  No  Eecess  of  a 
Diet  was  here  to  disturb  or  threaten  him.  The  Pope,  for 
political  reasons,  behaved  with  unwonted  caution  and  discre- 
tion :  he  delayed  in  this  case  for  several  years  the  ban  of  ex- 
communication which  he  had  pronounced  so  readily  against 
Luther.  Even  Hadrian,  the  man  of  firm  character,  to  whom 
Luther  was  an  object  of  abhorrence,  had  only  gracious  and 
insinuating  words  for  the  Zurich  Eeformer.  The  Zurich 
authorities,  at  the  same  time,  acting  in  concert  with  Zwingli, 
adopted  severe  measures  against  any  intrusion  of  fanatics 
and  Anabaptists,  nor  did  the  entire  population  of  the  small 
republic  contain  any  great  number  of  persons  so  thoroughly 
neglected,  and  so  difficult  of  influence  by  preachers,  as  was 
the  case  with  the  country  people  in  Germany.  Well  might 
Zwingli  press  forward  with  a  lighter  heart  than  Luther's  in 
his  work. 

Personally,  moreover,  he  had  never  passed  through  such 
severe  inward  struggles  as  Luther,  nor  had  ever  wrestled 
with  such  spiritual  anguish  and  distress.  The  thought  of 
reconciliation  with  God,  and  the  comforting  of  conscience  by 
the  assurance  of  His  forgiving  mercy,  were  not  with  Zwingli, 


ERASMUS,  HENRY  VIIL,  AND  THE  ZWINGLIANS.    375 

as  with  Luther,  the  centre  and  focus  of  his  aspirations  and 
reU'uous  interests.     He  knew  not  that  fervour  and  intense- 


fR.L^F  O  K.M'A^/r-0  IC     E.  T    PA  5  T  O  P^ 

-Ji^CcttX^iS  ^yj^  \T.  1'  c  a  R I  N  A.  . 

Fig.  38.— Zwingli.     (From  an  old  engraving.) 

ness  which  maJe  Luther  grasp  at  every  means  for  bringing 
home  God's  grace  to  congregations  of  beUevers,  or  to  each 


376  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 

individual  Christian  according  to  his  spiritual  need.     His 
view,  from  the  very  first,  extended  rather  to  the  totality  of 
religious  truth,  as  revealed  by  God  in  Scripture,  but  sadly 
disfigured  in  the  creeds  of  the  Chuixh  by  man's  additions  and 
misinterpretations ;  and  he  aimed,  far  more  than  Luther, 
at  a  reconstruction  of  moral,  and  especially  of  communal 
life,  in  conformity  with  what  the  Word  of  God  appeared  to 
demand.     It  was  easier  for  him,  therefore,  to  break  with 
the  past :  critical  scruples  against  tradition  did  not  weigh 
so  heavily  on   his   conscience.     His   critical  faculties,  no 
doubt,  were  sharpened  by  the.  humanistic  culture  he  had 
acquired.     Compared  with   Luther's    peculiar    meditative 
mood,  and  his  half- choleric,  half-melancholic  temperament, 
Zwingli  evinced,  in  all  his  conduct  and  demeanour,  a  more 
clear  and  sober  intelligence,  and  a  far  calmer  and  more 
easy  disposition.      His  practical  policy  and   conduct  was 
aUied  with  a  tendency  to  judicial  severity,  in  contrast  to 
the  free  spirit  which  animated  Luther.     So  rigorous  and 
narrow-minded  was  his  zeal  against  the  toleration  of  images, 
that  the  Wittenberg  theologians  could  not  help  detecting  in 
him  a  spirit  akin  to  that  of  Carlstadt  and  the  other  fanatics. 
Li  renouncing  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  transubstantia- 
tion  and  the  idea  of  a  sacrifice,  Zwingli  had  rejected  alto- 
gether   the   supposition   of    a   Eeal   Presence   of    Christ's 
Body  at  the  Sacrament ;  nay,  as  he  declared  later  on,  he 
had  never  truly  believed  in  it.     He  quoted  the  words  of 
Christ,  'The  flesh  profiteth  nothing'  (St.   John   vi.  63). 
He  would  understand  by  the  Sacrament  simply  a  spiritual 
feeding  of  the  faithful,  who,  by  the  Word  of  God  and  His 
Spirit,  are  enabled  to  enjoy  in  faith  the  salvation  purchased 
by  the  death  of  Christ.     He  saw  no  particular  necessity  for 
offering   this  salvation  to  them  by  an   administration  of 
Christ's  Body,  which  had  been  given  for  them,  through  the 
visible  medium  of  the  bread ;  nor  did  he  see  how  by  so 
doing  their  faith  could  be  strengthened.     In  Luther's  view 
the  practical  significance  of  the  Eeal  Presence  lay  in  this, 


ERASMUS,  HENRY  VIII.,  AND  THE  ZIVINGLIANS.   2,n 

that  ill  this  special  manner  the  Christian,  who  felt  his  need 
of  salvation,  was  assured,  and  became  a  partaker,  of  for- 
giveness and  communion  with  his  Saviour.  With  Zwingli, 
such  a  visible  communication  of  the  Divine  gift  of  salva- 
tion was  opposed  to  his  conception  of  God  and  the  Divine 
Nature ;  just  as  this  conception  was  opposed  to  that  kind  of 
union  of  the  Divine  and  human  nature  in  Christ  Himself, 
by  virtue  of  which,  according  to  Luther,  Christ  was  able 
and  willing  to  be  actually  present  everywhere  in  the  Sacra- 
ment with  His  human,  transfigured  body.  Inasmuch,  said 
Zwingli,  as  this  spiritual  feeding  took  place  in  faith  every- 
where, and  not  only  at  the  Sacrament,  it  was  no  essential 
part  of  the  Sacrament ;  the  real  essence  whereof  consisted 
in  this,  that  the  faithful  here  confessed  by  that  act  their 
common  belief  in  the  commemoration  of  Christ's  death, 
and,  as  members  of  His  Body,  pledged  themselves  to  such 
belief:  he  called  the  Sacrament  the  symbol  of  a  pledge. 
Luther  himself,  as  we  have  seen,  had  taught  from  the  first 
that  the  Sacrament  or  Communion  should  represent  the 
union  of  Christians  with  the  spiritual  Body,  or  their  com- 
munion of  the  spirit,  of  faith,  and  of  love.  But  with  him 
this  communion  was  a  secondary  condition  ;  it  was  the  feed- 
ing on  the  Body  of  Christ  Himself  which  was  to  promote 
such  communion  with  one  another  and,  above  all,  with  Christ. 
Zwingli  explained  the  word  'is'  of  our  Lord,  in  His  institution 
of  the  Sacrament,  to  mean  'signifies.'  Oecolampadius  pre- 
ferred the  explanation  that  the  bread  was  not  the  Body  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  word,  but  a  symbol  of  the  Body.  In 
point  of  fact,  this  was  a  distinction  without  a  difference. 

Such,  briefly  stated,  was  the  doctrinal  controversy  in 
which  the  two  Eeformers,  the  German  and  the  Swiss,  now 
engaged,  and  which  had  first  brought  them  into  contact. 

About  the  same  time  Luther  made  the  acquaintance  of 
another  opponent  of  his  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  the 
Silcsian  I\aspar  Schwenkfeld.  He  also,  like  his  friend 
Valentm  Krautwald,  denied  the  Eeal  Presence  ;  but  sought 


3/8  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

to  interpret  the  words  of  institution  in  yet  another  manner, 
connecting  with  his  theory  of  their  meaning  deeper  mystical 
ideas  of  the  means  of  salvation  in  general,  which  at  least  in 
some  quarters  and  to  a  small  extent,  have  still  survived. 

In  all  of  them,  however— in  Carlstadt,  Z  wingH,  Schwenk- 
feld, and  the  rest— Luther,  as  he  wrote  to  his  friends  at 
Eeutlingen,  perceived  only  one  and  the  same  puffed  up,  car- 
nal mind,  twisting  about  and  struggling,  to  avoid  having 
to  remain  subject  to  the  Word  of  God. 

His  first  public  declaration  against  Zwingli's  new  doc- 
trine was  in  1526,  in  his  preface  to  the  Syngramma  or 
treatise  of  the  fourteen  Swabian  ministers,  written,  as  his 
opening  words  express  it,  '  against  the  new  fanatics,  who  put 
forth  novel  dreams  about  the  Sacrament,  and  confuse  the 
world.' 

Blow  upon  blow  followed  in  the  battle  thus  commenced. 
"While  Oecolampadius  was  busy  composing  a  reply  to  the 
treatise  and  its  preface,  by  which  he  in  particular  had 
been  assailed,  Luther  proceeded  to  follow  up  the  attack. 
The  same  year  he  published  a  *  Sermon  on  the  Sacrament 
of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,  against  the-  Fanatics ; ' 
and  in  the  following  spring  a  larger  work  with  the  title 
*  A  Proof  that  Christ's  Words  of  Listitution,  "This  is  My 
Body,"  &c.,  still  stand,  against  the  Fanatics.'  He  con- 
cludes the  latter  with  the  wish,  '  God  grant  that  they 
may  be  converted  to  the  truth  ;  if  not,  that  they  may  twist 
cords  of  vanity  wherewith  to  catch  themselves,  and  fall 
into  my  hands.'  Just  then,  however,  Zwingli  had  written 
against  him,  and  to  him,  and  the  missive  arrived  at  the 
moment  when  he  had  issued  the  last-named  work.  Zwingli 
wrote  in  Latin,  entitling  his  tract,  '  A  Friendly  Exposition 
of  the  matter  concerning  the  Sacrament,'  and  sent  it  with 
a  letter  to  Luther.  These  were  followed  almost  imme- 
diately by  a  reply,  in  German,  to  Luther's  Sermon,  under 
the  title  of  *  A  Friendly  Criticism  of  the  Sermon  of  the 
Excellent  Martin  Luther  againspt  tlie  Fanatics.'     Zwingli 


ERASMUS,  HENRY  VllL,  AND  THE  ZWINGLIANS.   379 

had  scarcely  had  Luther's  last  ^Yritten  work  in  his  hands 
when  he  replied  to  it  in  a  new  treatise  :  '  A  proof  that  Christ's 
words, ''  This  is  My  Body  which  is  given  for  you,"  will  for  all 
ages  retain  the  ancient  and  only  meaning,  and  that  Martin 
Luther  in  his  last  book  has  neither  taught  nor  proved  his 
own  and  the  Pope's  meaning ;  '  the  title  thus  indicating 
that  Luther's  and  the  Pope's  meaning  were  one  and  the 
same.  Oecolampadius  at  the  same  time  published  *  A  fair 
Eeply '  to  Luther's  work.  These  were  the  writings  of 
the  Sacramentarians  which  reached  Luther  during  the 
troublous  time  of  the  plague  at  Wittenberg,  and  filled  hhn 
with  the  pain  of  which  we  heard  him  then  complain. 

Zwingli's  doctrine,  from  the  time  of  its  first  announce- 
ment, had  seemed  to  Luther  nothing  but  a  visionary — nay, 
*  devilish '  perversion  of  the  truth  and  the  Word  of  God. 
The  progress  of  the  controversy,  so  far  from  healing  the 
difference  between  them,  tended  only  to  sharpen  and 
intensify  it.  From  the  first  hour  the  two  Pieformers  met 
in  opposition,  the  gulf  was  already  fixed  which  henceforth 
divided  Evangehcal  Protestantism  into  two  separate  Con- 
fessions and  Church  communities. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  pass  judgment  on  the  matter 
in  controversy,  or  to  trace  minutely  the  leading  points  of 
dogma  involved  in  the  dispute.  Regarding  it,  however,  by 
the  fight  of  history,  it  must  be  acknowledged  and  avowed 
that  this  was  no  mere  passionate  quarrel  about  words  alone 
or  propositions  of  dogmatic  and  metaphysical  interest,  but 
devoid  of  any  religious  importance.  Even  in  the  attempts 
to  establish  points  of  detail,  reference  was  constantly  made, 
on  both  sides,  to  deep  questions  and  views  of  Christian 
religion. 

Not  only  did  Zwingli  and  Oecolampadius,  in  their  anti- 
literal  and  figurative  interpretation  of  the  words  of  institu- 
tion, endeavour  to  support  it  by  Scriptural  analogies,  more 
or  less  appropriate,  but  in  the  practical  objections  they  raised, 
which  Luther  treated  as  over-curious  subtleties  of  human 


ßo  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

reason,  they  were  actuated  in  reality  by  motives  of  a  religious 
character.  In  their  view,  a  pure  and  reverential  conception 
of  God  was  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  such  an  offertory  of 
Divine  gifts,  consisting  of  material  elements  and  for  mere 
bodily  nourishment.  Not  indeed  that  Luther,  in  accepting 
the  words  in  their  literal  sense,  had  become  a  slave  to  the 
letter,  in  contradiction  to  the  free  and  lofty  spirit  in  which 
he  had  elsewhere  accepted  the  contents  of  Holy  Scripture. 
The  question  with  him  here  was  about  a  word  of  unique 
importance — a  word  used  by  Christ  on  the  threshold,  so  to 
speak,  of  His  death  for  our  redemption ;  and  we  have  already 
remarked  what  value  he  attached  to  the  actual  bodily  pre- 
sence indicated  by  that  word,  as  assuring  and  imparting 
salvation  to  those  who  partook  at  His  table  in  faith. 
No  analogies  to  the  contrary,  derived  from  other  figurative 
expressions,  would  content  him,  though  of  course  he  never 
denied  that  such  expressions  could  and  did  occur  through- 
out the  Bible.  The  text,  '  The  flesh  profiteth  nothing,'  on 
which  Zwingli  primarily  relied,  Luther  understood  as  re- 
ferring not  to  the  flesh  of  Christ,  but  to  the  carnal  mind  of 
man  ;  though  he  was  careful  to  declare  that  it  was  not  the 
fleshly  presence,  as  such,  of  our  Saviour  which  gave  the 
Sacrament  its  value  and  importance  ;  nor  must  the  feed- 
ing of  the  communicants  be  a  mere  bodily  feeding,  but 
that  the  word  and  promise  of  Christ  were  there  present, 
and  that  faith  alone  in  that  word  and  promise  could  make 
the  feeding  bring  salvation.  God's  glory  was  therein 
exalted  to  the  highest,  that  from  His  pitting  love  he  mad« 
Himself  equal  with  the  lowest. 

In  the  doctrine  concerning  the  person  of  the  Eedeemer, 
a  point  to  which  the  controversy  further  led,  the  Church  had 
hitherto  affirmed  simply  a  union  of  the  Divine  and  human 
natures,  each  retaining  the  attributes  and  qualities  peculiar 
to  itself.  Luther  wished  to  see  in  the  Man  Jesus,  the 
Divine  nature,  which  stooped  to  share  humanity,  conceived 
and   realised  with   deeper  and  more   active  fervour.      As 


VEESIT 

ERASMUS,  HENRY  VI IL,  AND  THE  Z  \Vf^^^J^N^':2^l  ^^\ 

the  Son  of  God  He  died  for  us,  and  as  the  Son  of  Man 
He  was  exalted,  with  His  body,  to  sit  at  the  right  hand  of 
God,  which  is  not  hmited  to  any  place,  and  is  at  once 
nowhere  and  everywhere.  It  is  true,  Luther  does  not 
♦proceed  to  explain  how  this  body  is  still  a  human  body,  or 
indeed  a  body  at  all.  Zwingli,  in  keeping  the  two  natures 
distinct,  wished  to  i)reserve  the  sublimity  of  his  God  and 
the  genuine  humanity  of  tl^e  Xledeemer ;  but  in  so  doing, 
he  ended  by  making  the  two  natures  run  parallel,  so  to 
speak,  in  a  mere  stiff,  dogmatic  formulary,  and  by  an  arti- 
ficial interpretation  and  analysis  of  the  words  of  Scripture 
touching  the  One  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God  and  man. 

The  manner,  however,  in  which  this  controversy  was 
conducted  on  both  sides  betrays  an  utter  failure  on  the 
part  of  either  combatant  to  apprehend  and  do  justice  to 
the  religious  and  Christian  motives,  which,  with  all  their 
antagonism,  never  ceased  to  animate  the  opposite  party. 
Luther's  attitude  towards  Zwingli  we  have  already  noticed. 
We  have  seen  how  his  zeal,  in  particular,  prompted  him  too 
often  to  see  in  the  conduct  of  individual  opponents  simply 
and  solely  the  dominating  influence  of  that  spu'it,  from 
which  certain  pernicious  tendencies,  according  to  his  own 
convictions,  proceeded  and  had  to  be  combated.  Thus  it 
was  in  this  instance.  It  was  all  visionary  nonsense,  nay, 
sheer  devilry,  and  be  attacked  it  in  language  of  proportionate 
violence.  From  Zwingli  a  different  attitude  was  to  be  ex- 
pected, from  the  amicable  titles  of  his  treatises  and  the 
personal  correspondence  with  Luther  which  he  himself 
invited.  He  adopted  here  for  the  most  part,  as  in  other 
matters,  a  calm  and  courteous  tone,  and  exercised  a  power 
of  self-restraint  to  which  Luther  was  a  stranger.  But  with 
a  lofty  mien,  though  in  the  same  tone,  he  re^jected  Luther's 
propositions,  as  the  fruit  of  ludicrous  obstinacy  and 
narrowness  of  mind,  nay,  as  a  retrograde  step  into  Popery. 
His  letter,  moreover,  embittered  the  contest  by  importing 
into  it  extraneous  matter  of  reproach,  such  as,  in  particular, 


382  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

Luther's  conduct  in  the  Peasants'  War.  Luther  had  reason 
to  say  of  him,  'He  rages  against  me,  and  threatens  me 
with  the  utmost  moderation  and  modest}^'  Zwingh's  later 
repHes  evince  a  straightforwardness  we  miss  in  the  earher 
ones,  but  they  are  marred  by  much  rudeness  and  coarseness 
of  language,  and  display  throughout  a  lofty  self-consciousness 
and  a  triumphant  assurance  of  victory. 

Luther,  after  reading  the  Jast-mentioned  treatises  of 
Zwingli  and  Oecolampadius,  resolved  to  publish  one  answer 
more,  the  last ;  for  Satan,  he  said,  must  not  be  suffered  to 
hinder  him  further  in  the  prosecution  of  other  and  more 
important  matters.  At  this  time  he  was  particularly  anxious 
to  complete  his  translation  of  the  Bible,  being  now  hard  at 
work  with  the  books  of  the  Prophets.  His  answer  to 
Zwingli  grew  ultimately  into  the  most  exhaustive  of  all  his 
contributions  to  the  dispute.  It  appeared  in  March  1528 
under  the  title  of  '  Confession  concerning  the  Lord's  Supper.' 
He  went  over  once  more  all  the  most  important  questions 
and  arguments  which  had  formed  the  subject  of  contention, 
expounded  his  ideas  more  fully  on  the  Person  and  Presence 
of  Christ,  and  explained  calmly  and  impressively  the  passages 
of  Scripture  relating  thereto.  He  concluded  with  a  short 
summary  of  his  own  confession  of  Christian  faith,  that  men 
might  know,  both  then  and  after  his  death,  how  carefully 
and  diligently  he  had  thought  over  everything,  and  that 
future  teachers  of  error  might  not  pretend  that  Luther  would 
have  taught  many  things  otherwise  at  another  time  and 
after  further  reflection. 

Zwingli  and  Oecolampadius  hastened  at  once  to  prepare 
new  pamphlets  in  reply,  and  to  publish  them  wdth  a  dedi- 
cation to  the  Elector  John  and  the  Landgrave  Philip.  But 
Luther  adhered  to  his  resolve.  He  let  them  have  the  last 
word,  as  he  had  done  with  Erasmus.  They  had  not  con- 
tributed anything  new  to  the  dispute. 

While  Luther  was  writing  his  last  treatise  against  the 
Sacramentarians,  he  found  himself  obliged  to  issue  a  fresh 


ERASMUS,  IIKNRV  VIIL,  A\D  THE  ZWIXGLIAXS.   ^^'^^ 

protest  against  the  Anabaptists.  This  ^Yas  a  tract  en- 
titled '  On  Anabaptism ;  to  two  pastors.'  But  while  de- 
nouncing these  sectaries,  he  protested  strongly  against  the 
manner  in  which  the  civil  authorities  were  dealing  with 
them,  by  the  infliction  of  punishment  and  even  death  on 
account  of  their  principles,  even  when  no  seditious  conduct 
could  be  alleged  against  them.  Everyone,  he  said,  should 
be  allowed  to  believe  what  he  liked.  Similarly  he  wrote  to 
Nuremberg  shortly  after,  where  as  we  have  already  men- 
tioned, the  new  errors  were  spreading,  saying  that  he  could 
in  no  wise  admit  the  right  to  execute  false  prophets  or 
teachers  ;  it  was  quite  enough  to  expel  them.  Luther  in 
this  distinguished  himself  above  most  of  the  men  of  the 
Eeformation.  At  Zurich,  while  ZwingH  was  accusmg  Luther 
of  cruelty.  Anabaptists  were  being  drowned  in  public. 

The  foreground  is  now  occupied  again  by  the  struggle 
with  Catholicism — in  other  words,  by  the  contest  with  the 
German  princes  who  were  hostile  to  the  Reformation,  and 
with  the  Emperor  himself  and  the  majority  of  the  Diet. 


384  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

CHURCH    DIVISIONS   IN    GERMANY — WAR   WITH    THE    TURKS — 
THE    CONFERENCE    AT    MARBURG,    1529. 

In  the  war  against  the  Pope  and  France  an  imperial  army 
in  1527  had  stormed  and  plmidered  Eome.  God,  as  Luther 
said,  had  so  ordained,  that  the  Emperor,  who  persecuted 
Luther  for  the  Pope,  had  to  destroy  the  Pope  for  Luther. 
But  Charles  V.  was  not  then  in  a  position  to  hreak  with  the 
Head  of  the  Church.  In  the  treaty  concluded  with  the 
Pope  in  November,  mention  was  again  made  of  extirpating 
the  Lutheran  heresy.  And  whilst  in  Italy  the  war  with 
France  was  still  going  on,  the  Emperor  in  the  spring  of 
1528  sent  an  ambassador  to  the  German  Courts,  to  rouse 
fresh  zeal  for  the  Church  in  this  matter. 

But  before  the  threatened  danger  actually  reached  the 
Evangelical  party,  it  was  j)receded  by  disquieting  rumours 
and  false  alarms. 

In  March  1528  a  new  Diet  was  to  assemble  at  Eatisbon. 
Luther  heard  in  February  of  strange  designs  being  medi- 
tated there  by  the  Papists.  His  wish  was  that  Charles's 
brother  Ferdinand  might  be  detained  in  Hungary,  where 
he  was  occupied  in  fighting  the  Turks  and  then-  protege^ 
Prince  John  Zapolya  of  Transylvania,  and  that  the  Diet 
should  be  prevented  from  meeting.  Luther's  adversaries, 
on  the  other  hand,  feared  an  unfavourable  decision  from 
the  Estates,  and  the  Emperor  at  length  peremptorily  for- 
bade their  meeting. 

Just  about  this  time,  John  Pack,  a  steward  of  the 
chancery  who   had   been   dismissed   by   Duke   George   of 


CHURCH  DIVISIONS   IN   GERMANY.  385 

Saxony,  came  to  the  Landgrave  Philip  and  informed  liim 
of  a  league  concluded  with  King  Ferdinand  by  the  Dukes 
of  Saxony  and  Bavaria,  the  Electors  of  Mayence  and 
Brandenburg,  and  several  Bishops,  to  attack  the  Evan- 
gelical princes.  The  Electorate  of  Saxony,  where  John 
was  just  then  engaged  in  completing  the  re-organisation 
of  the  Church,  was  to  be  partitioned  among  them,  and 
Hesse  was  to  be  allotted  to  Duke  George.  John  and 
Philip  quickly  formed  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance, 
and  called  out  their  troops.  The  whole  scheme,  as  was 
shortly  proved  beyond  dispute,  was  an  invention,  and  the 
pretended  treaty  a  forgery,  of  Pack,  who  had  been  paid  a 
large  sum  for  his  reyelatious.  Luther  himself  had  no  doubt 
of  the  genuineness  of  the  document,  and  persisted  even 
afterwards  in  his  belief.  But  while  the  Landgrave,  with 
his  habitual  vehemence,  was  impatient  to  strike  quickly, 
before  their  enemies  were  prepared,  both  Luther  and  the 
other  Wittenberg  theologians  did  their  utmost  to  restrain 
their  sovereign  from  any  act  of  violence.  Luther  earnestly 
bade  him  remember  the  words  :  *  Blessed  are  the  meek,  for 
they  shall  inherit  the  earth  '  (St.  Matt.  v.  5), — *  As  much  as 
lieth  in  you,  live  peaceably  with  all  men '  (Rom.  xii.  18), — 
'  Those  that  take  the  sword,  shall  perish  with  the  sword ' 
(St.  Matt.  xxvi.  52).  He  warned  them  that  'one  durst  not 
paint  the  devil  over  one's  door,  nor  ask  him  to  stand  god- 
father.' He  feared  a  civil  war  among  the  princes,  which 
would  be  worse  than  a  rising  of  the  peasants,  and  utterly 
ruinous  to  Germany.  Philip  accordingly  stayed  his  hand, 
until  the  reply  of  his  supposed  enemies,  from  whom  he 
demanded  an  explanation,  puzzled  him  as  to  the  meaning 
of  Pack's  overtures. 

A  private  letter  sent  by  Luther  to  Link,  in  which  he 
spoke  of  George  as  a  fool,  and  said  he  mistrusted  his 
promises,  led  afterwards,  on  George's  learning  its  contents, 
to  a  new  and  bitter  quarrel  between  the  two.  The  Duke 
made  a  violent  attack  on  Luther  in   a  pamphlet,  which 

c  c 


386  RECONSTRUCTION  OF    THE   CHURCH. 

appeared  early  in  1521,  to  which  the  latter  replied  with  equal 
violence,  denouncing  the  abuse  of  '  secret  {i.e.  private)  and 
stolen  letters.'  George  retorted  in  the  same  strain,  and 
persuaded  his  cousin  John,  to  whom  he  addressed  a  formal 
complaint,  to  prohibit  Luther  from  printing  anything  more 
against  him  without  Electoral  permission ; — a  step  which 
effectually  silenced  his  opponent. 

On  November  30,  1528,  the  Emperor  summoned  a  Diet 
to  meet  at  Spires  on  February  21  of  the  following  year,  in 
order  that  decisive  and  energetic  measures  should  be  taken 
— as  recommended  once  more  by  the  Pope — to  secure  the 
unity  and  sole  supremacy  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The  chief 
subjects  named  for  deliberation  were,  the  armament  against 
the  Turks,  and  the  innovations  in  matters  of  religion. 

As  regards  the  war  against  the  Turks,  Luther,  who  had 
previously  let  fall  some  occasional  remai'ks  about  certain 
wholesome  effects  it  would  have  in  checking  the  designs  of 
the  Papacy,  let  his  voice  be  heard,  notwithstanding,  in 
summoning  the  whole  nation  to  do  battle  against  the  fearful 
and  horrible  enemy,  whom  they  had  hitherto  suffered  so 
shamefully  to  oppress  them.  Since  the  latter  part  of  the 
summer  of  1528  he  had  been  engaged  upon  a  pamphlet  '  On 
the  War  against  the  Turks,'  the  publication  of  which  was 
accidentally  delayed  till  March,  when  he  was  busy  with  his 
Catechism. 

In  this  pamphlet  he  spoke  to  his  fellow- Germans,  with 
the  noblest  fire  and  in  the  fulness  of  his  strength,  as  a 
Christian,  a  citizen,  and  a  patriot,  and  with  a  clearness 
and  decision  derived  from  convictions  and  principles  of  his 
own.  He  had  no  wish  to  preach  a  new  crusade ;  for  the 
sword  had  nothing  to  do  with  religion,  but  only  with 
bodily  and  temporal  things.  But  he  exhorted  and  en- 
couraged the  authority,  whom  God  had  entrusted  with 
temporal  power,  to  take  up  the  sword  against  the  all- 
devouring  enemy,  with  sure  trust  in  God  and  certain 
confidence  in  his  mission.     By  the  '  authority '  he  meant 


CHURCH  DIVISIONS  IN  GERMANY.  387 

the  Emperor,  in  whom  he  recognised  the  head  of  Germany. 
He  it  was  who  must  fight  against  the  Tm-ks ;  under  liig 
banner  they  must  march,  and  upon  that  banner  should  be 
seen  the  command  of  God,  which  said  '  Protect  the 
righteous,  but  punish  the  wicked.'  *  But,'  asked  Luther, 
*how  many  are  there  who  can  read  those  words  on  the 
Emperor's  banner,  or  who  seriously  believe  in  them  ? ' 
He  complained  that  neither  Emperor  nor  princes  properly 
believed  that  they  were  Emperor  and  princes,  and  there- 
fore thought  little  about  the  protection  they  owed  to  their 
subjects.  Further  on  he  rebuked  the  princes  for  letting 
matters  go  on  as  if  they  had  no  concern  in  them,  instead 
of  advising  and  assisting  the  Emperor  with  all  the  means 
in  their  power.  He  knew  well  the  pride  of  some  of  the 
princes,  who  would  like  to  see  the  Emperor  a  nonentity 
and  themselves  the  heroes  and  masters.  Rebellion,  he  said, 
was  punished  in  the  case  of  the  peasants ;  but  if  rebellion 
were  punished  also  among  princes  and  nobles,  he  fancied 
there  would  be  very  few  of  them  left.  He  feared  that 
the  Turk  would  bring  some  such  punishment  upon  them, 
and  he  prayed  God  to  avert  it.  Finally,  he  bade  them 
remember  not  to  buckle  on  their  armour  too  loosely, 
and  underrate  their  enemies,  as  Germans  were  too  prone 
to  do.  He  warned  them  not  to  tempt  God  by  inadequate 
preparation,  and  sacrifice  the  poor  Germans  at  the 
shambles,  nor  as  soon  as  the  victory  was  won  to  *  sit  down 
again  and  carouse  until  the  hour  of  need  returned.' 

At  Spires,  however,  the  whole  zeal  of  the  imperial 
commissaries  and  of  the  Catholic  Estates  was  directed,  not 
against  the  common  enemy  of  Germany  and  Christendom, 
but  to  the  internal  affairs  of  the  Church.  They  succeeded 
in  passing  a  resolution  or  article,  declaring  that  those 
States  which  had  held  to  the  Edict  of  Worms  should 
continue  to  impose  its  execution  on  their  subjects ;  the 
other  States  should  abstain  at  least  from  further  innova- 
tions.   The  celebration  of  the  mass  was  not  to  be  obstructed, 

c  c  2 


388  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CEIURCH. 

nor  was  anyone  to  be  prevented  from  hearing  it.  The 
subjects  of  one  State  were  never  to  be  protected  by  another 
State  against  their  own.  By  these  means,  not  only  was 
the  Eeformation  prevented  from  spreading  farther,  but  it 
was  cut  off  at  a  blow  in  those  places  where  it  had  already 
been  in  full  swing.  By  the  decision  respecting  the  mass, 
room  was  given  for  attempts  to  reinstate  it  on  Evangelical 
territory ;  by  the  other  decision  respecting  the  subjects  of 
different  States,  power  was  given  to  the  bishops  of  the 
German  Empire  to  coerce,  if  they  chose,  the  local  clergy, 
as  their  subordinates.  Further  steps  in  the  exei'cise  of  this 
power  could  easily  be  anticipated. 

This  resolution  of  the  majority  was  answered  on  April 
19  by  the  Evangelical  party  with  a  formal  protest,  from 
which  they  received  the  name  their  descendants  still  bear 
— Protestants.  They  insisted  that  the  Imperial  Recess 
unanimously  agreed  on  at  the  first  Diet  of  Spires  in  1526 
could  only  be  altered  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  the 
States ;  and  they  declared  '  that,  even  apart  from  that,  in 
matters  relating  to  the  honour  of  God  and  the  salvation  of 
our  souls,  every  man  must  stand  alone  before  God  and 
give  account  for  himself.'  In  these  matters,  therefore, 
they  could  not  submit  to  the  resolution  of  the  majority. 

The  majority,  however,  as  well  as  Ferdinand,  the 
Emperor's  brother  and  representative,  refused  to  admit 
their  right  of  opposition.  The  minority  must  prepare 
to  submit  to  coercion  and  the  exercise  of  force.  Against 
this  the  Elector  and  Landgrave  concluded,  on  April  22, 
a  *  secret  agreement '  with  the  cities  of  Nuremberg, 
Strasburg,  and  Ulm.  The  Landgrave  was  eager  that 
this  alliance  should  be  strengthened  by  the  admission  of 
Zurich  and  the  other  Evangelical  towns  in  Switzerland. 
And  a  similar  proposal  was  made  to  him  by  Zwingli,  who, 
in  connection  with  his  ecclesiastical  labours,  was  carrying 
on  a  bold  and  high  policy,  in  striving  to  effect  an  alliance 
with  the  republic  of  Venice  and  the  King  of  France  against 


CHURCH  DIVISIONS  IN  GERMANY.  389 

the  Emperor.  He  certainly  far  overrated  the  importance 
of  his  town  in  the  great  affairs  of  the  world,  and  placed  a 
strangely  naive  confidence  in  the  French  monarch. 

Luther,  on  the  contrary,  set  his  face  as  resolutely  now 
as  in  the  affair  of  Pack,  against  any  appeal  to  the  sword  in 
support  of  the  gospel.  He  would  have  his  friends  rely  on 
God  and  not  on  the  wit  of  man ;  and,  with  regard  to  the 
last  Diet,  he  was  quite  content  that  God  had  not  allowed 
their  enemies  to  rage  even  more.  He  was  willing  even  to 
trust  to  the  Emperor  for  relief ;  the  Evangelical  party,  he 
said,  should  represent  to  his  Majesty  how  their  sole  concern 
was  for  the  gospel  and  for  the  removal  of  abuses  which 
no  one  could  deny  to  exist ;  how,  at  the  same  time,  they 
had  resisted  the  iconoclasts  and  other  riotous  fanatics,  nay, 
how  the  suppression  of  the  Anabaptists  and  the  peasants 
w^as  pre-eminently  due  to  them ;  and  how  they  had  been 
the  first  to  bring  to  light  and  vindicate  the  rights  and 
majesty  of  authority.  A  i^epresentation  of  this  kind,  he 
hoped,  must  surely  have  an  influence  on  the  Emperor. 
He  flatly  rejected  any  alliance  with  those,-  namely,  the 
Swiss,— who  '  strive  thus  against  God  and  the  Sacrament ; ' 
such  an  alliance  would  disgrace  the  gospel  and  draw  down 
their  sins  upon  their  heads.  This  opinion,  in  which  the 
other  Wittenberg  theologians,  and  especially  Melancthon, 
concurred,  determined  that  of  the  Elector. 

The  Landgrave  did  his  utmost  to  remove  this  obstacle 
to  an  alliance  with  the  Swiss.  He  urged  a  personal  con- 
ference between  the  rival  theologians  on  the  question  of 
the  Sacrament.  Luther  and  Melancthon  were  strongly 
opposed  to  such  a  step,  inasmuch  as  the  course  of  the 
controversy  hitherto  had  not  revealed  a  single  point  which 
offered  any  hope  of  reconciliation  or  mutual  approach. 
Luther  reminded  him  how,  ten  years  before,  the  Leipzig 
disputation  served  only  to  make  bad  worse.  Intrigues, 
moreover,  were  apprehended  from  the  other  side,  lest  the 
Lutherans  should  be  held  up  to  odium  as  the  enemies  of 


390  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

unity  and  obstacles  to  an  alliance,  and  the  Landgrave  be 
alienated  from  them.  Melancthon,  indeed,  had  brought 
with  him  from  Spires,  where  he  had  been  staymg  with 
Philip,  a  suspicion  that  the  latter  inclined  to  the 
Zwinglians,  and  was  right  m  his  conjecture  at  least  so 
far,  that  their  doctrine  did  not  appear  to  him  nearly  so 
questionable  as  to  the  Wittenbergers.  But  the  simple 
fear  of  consequences  made  Luther  unwillmg  and  unable 
to  refuse  the  Landgrave's  urgent  invitation,  backed  as  it 
was  with  the  concurrence  of  the  Elector.  He  wrote  to  him 
on  June  23,  declaring  his  readmess  to  *  render  him  this 
useless  service  with  all  diligence,'  and  only  entreated  him 
to  consider  once  more  whether  it  would  do  more  good  than 
harm.  The  conference  was  to  take  place  at  the  Castle  of 
Marburg  on  Michaelmas  day  (1529). 

Luther's  sentiments  in  the  interval  are  expressed  in  a 
letter  which  he  wrote  on  August  2  to  a  distant  friend,  the 
pastor  Brismann  at  Kiga.  '  Philip  (Melancthon)  and  myself,' 
he  says,  'after  many  refusals  and  much  vam  resistance, 
have  been  at  length  compelled  to  give  our  consent,  be- 
cause of  the  Landgrave's  importunity  ;  but  I  know  not  yet 
whether  our  going  will  come  to  anything.  We  have  no 
hopes  of  any  good  result,  but  suspect  artifice  on  all  sides, 
that  our  enemies  may  be  able  to  boast  of  having  gained  the 
victory.  ...  I  am  pretty  well  in  body,  but  inwardly 
weak,  suffering  like  Peter  from  want  of  faith;  but  the 
prayers  of  my  brethren  support  me.  .  .  .  That  youth  of 
Hesse  is  restless,  and  boiling  over  with  projects.  .  .  .  Thus 
everywhere  we  are  threatened  with  more  danger  from  our 
own  people  than  from  our  enemies.  Satan  rests  not,  in 
his  bloodthirstiness,  from  the  work  of  murder  and  bloodshed.' 

In  the  same  letter  Luther  tells  of  the  panic  caused 
by  a  new  pestilence— the  Sweating  Sickness— which  had 
appeared  in  Germany  and  at  Wittenberg  itself.  It  was  a 
plague,  known  already  many  years  before,  which  used  to 
attack  its  victims  with  fever,  sweat,  thirst,  intense  pam  and 


CHURCH  DIVISIONS  IN  GERMANY.  391 

exhaustion,  and  snatch  them  off  with  fearful  rapidity. 
Luther  knew  well  the  danger  of  it  when  once  it  actually 
appeared.  But  he  watched  without  terror  the  supposed 
symptoms  of  its  appearance  at  Wittenberg,  and  remarked 
that  the  sickness  there  was  mainly  caused  by  fright.  On 
the  27th  he  told  another  friend  how  the  night  before  he 
had  awoke  bathed  m  sweat,  and  tormented  with  anxious 
thoughts,  so  much  so,  that  had  he  given  way  to  them  he 
might  very  likely  have  fallen  ill  like  so  many  others.  He 
named  also  several  of  his  acquamtances,  whom  he  had 
driven  out  of  bed,  when  they  lay  there  fancying  themselves 
ill,  and  who  were  now  laughing  at  their  own  fancies. 

The  Emperor,  meanwhile,  concluded  a  final  treaty  with 
the  Pope  on  June  29,  and  on  August  5  made  peace  with  King 
Francis.  By  this  treaty  of  Barcelona  he  pledged  himself  to 
provide  a  suitable  antidote  to  the  poisonous  infection  of  the 
new  opinions.  By  the  peace  of  Cambray  he  renewed  the 
promise,  given  m  the  treaty  of  Madrid,  of  a  mutual  co- 
operation of  the  two  monarchs  for  the  extirpation  of  heresy. 

At  Marburg  the  meeting  now  actually  took  place  between^ 
the  theological  champions  of  that  great  religious  movement 
which  strove  to  set  up  the  gospel  against  the  dommation  of 
Eome,  and  was  therefore  condemned  by  Eome  as  heretical. 
It  was  now  to  be  decided  whether  the  anti-Komanists 
could  not  become  united  among  themselves;  whether  the 
two  hostile  parties  in  this  movement  could  not,  at  least  in 
face  of  the  common  danger,  join  to  make  a  powerful  united 
Church.  Zwingli's  political  conduct,  and  the  cheerful  and 
submissive  readiness  with  which  he  had  complied  with  the 
Landgrave's  proposal,  afforded  ground  for  expecting  that, 
while  steadfastly  adhering  to  his  own  doctrine,  he  would 
embrace  such  an  alliance,  notw^ithstanding  their  doctrinal 
differences.     Everything  now  really  depended  upon  Luther. 

Zwingli  and  Oecolampadius  met  the  Strasburg  theo- 
logians, Butzer  and  Hedio,  and  Jacob  Sturm,  the  leadmg 
citizen  of  that  town,  on  September  29,  at  Marburg.     The 


392  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

next  day  they  were  joined  by  Luther  and  Melancthon,  to- 
gether with  Jonas  and  Cruciger  from  Wittenberg  and 
Myconius  from  Gotha  ;  and  afterwards  came  the  preachers 
Osiander  from  Nuremberg,  Brenz  h^om  Schwäbish  Hall,  and 
Stephen  Agi'icola  from  Angsbm-g.  The  Landgrave  enter- 
tained them  in  a  friendly  and  sumptuous  manner  at  his  castle. 

On  October  1,  the  day  after  his  arrival,  Luther  was 
summoned  by  the  Landgrave  to  a  private  conference  with 
Oecolampadius,  towards  whom  he  had  always  felt  more 
confidence,  and  whom  he  had  greeted  in  a  friendly  manner 
when  they  met.  Melancthon,  being  of  a  calmer  tempera- 
ment, was  left  to  confer  with  Zwmgli.  As  regards  the 
main  subject  of  the  controversy,  the  question  of  the  Sacra- 
ment, no  practical  result  was  arrived  at  between  the  parties. 
But  on  certam  other  pomts,  m  which  Zwingli  had  been 
suspected  by  the  Wittenbergers,  and  in  which  he  partly 
differed  from  them— for  instance,  concernmg  the  Church 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  in  Unity,  and  the  Godhead  of 
Christ,  and  the  doctrine  of  original  sm— he  offered  ex- 
planations to  Melancthon,  the  result  of  which  was  that  the 
two  came  to  an  agreement. 

The  general  debate  began  on  Sunday,  October  2,  at  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  The  theologians  assembled  for  that 
purpose  in  an  apartment  in  the  east  wing  of  the  castle, 
before  the  Landgrave  himself,  and  a  number  of  nobles  and 
guests  of  the  court,  including  the  exiled  Duke  Ulrich  of 
Wiirtemberg.  Out  of  deference  to  the  audience,  the  language 
used  was  to  be  German.  Zwingli  had  wished,  instead,  that 
anyone  who  desired  it  might  be  admitted  to  hear,  but  that 
the  discussion  should  be  held  in  Latin,  which  he  could  speak 
with  greater  fluency.  The  four  theologians  last  mentioned, 
who  were  to  conduct  the  debate,  sat  together  at  a  table. 
Luther,  however,  assumed  the  lead  of  his  side  ;  Melancthon 
only  put  in  a  few  remarks  here  and  there.  The  Landgrave's 
chancellor.  Feige,  opened  the  proceedings  with  a  formal 
address. 


CHURCH  DIVISIONS  IN  GERMANY.  393 

Luther  at  the  outset  requested  that  his  opponents  should 
first  express  their  opinions  upon  other  points  of  doctrine 
which  seemed  to  him  doubtful ;  but  he  waived  this  request 
on  Oecolampadius's  replying  that  he  was  not  aware  that 
such  doubts  involved  any  contradiction  to  Luther's  doctrine, 
and  on  Zwingli's  appealing  to  his  agreement  recently 
effected  with  Melancthon.  All  he  himself  had  to  do,  said 
Luther,  was  to  declare  publicly,  that  with  regard  to  those 
doubts  he  disagreed  entirely  with  certain  expressions  con- 
tained in  their  earlier  writings.  The  chief  question  was 
then  taken  in  hand. 

The  arguments  and  counter-arguments,  set  forth  by  the 
combatants  at  various  times  in  their  writings,  were  now 
succinctly  but  exhaustively  recapitulated.  But  they  were 
neither  strengthened  further  nor  enlarged.  The  disputants 
were  constrained  to  listen  during  this  debate  to  the  oral 
utterances  of  their  opponents  with  more  deference  than 
they  had  done  for  the  most  part  in  their  literary  controversy, 
with  its  hasty  and  passionate  expressions  on  each  side. 

Luther  from  the  outset  took  his  stand,  as  he  had  done 
before,  on  the  simple  words  of  institution,  'This  is  my 
Body.'  He  had  chalked  them  down  before  him  on  the  table. 
His  opponents,  he  maintained,  ought  to  give  to  God  the 
honour  due  to  Him,  by  believing  His  *  pure  and  unadorned 
Word.' 

Zwingli  and  Oecolampadius,  on  the  contrary,  relied 
mainly,  as  heretofore,  on  the  words  of  Christ  in  the  sixth 
chapter  of  St.  John,  where  He  evidently  alluded  to  a 
spiritual  feeding,  and  declared  that  '  the  flesh  profiteth 
nothing.'  Honour  must  be  given  to  God,  he  said,  by 
accepting  from  Him  this  clear  interpretation  of  His  Word. 
Luther  agreed  with  them,  as  previously,  that  Jesus  there 
spoke  only  of  the  spiritual  partaking  by  the  faithful,  but 
maintained  that  in  the  Sacrament  He  had,  in  his  words 
of  institution,  superadded  the  offer  of  His  Body  for  the 
strengthening   of  faith    and   that   these   words   were   not 


394  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 

useless  or  unmeaning,  but  of  potent  efficacy  through  the 
Word  of  God.  '  I  would  eat  even  crab-apples,'  said  Luther, 
'  without  asking  why,  if  the  Lord  put  them  before  me, 
and  said  *'  Take  and  eat."  '  He  fired  up  when  Zwingli 
answered  that  the  passage  in  St.  John  '  broke  Luther's 
neck,'  the  expression  not  being  as  familiar  to  him  as  to  the 
Swiss  :  the  Landgrave  himself  had  to  step  in  as  a  mediator 
and  quiet  them. 

In  the  afternoon  Luther's  opponents  proceeded  to  argue 
that  Christ  could  not  be  present  with  His  Body  at  the 
Sacrament,  because  His  Body  was  in  heaven,  and  the  body, 
as  such,  was  confined  within  circumscribed  limits,  and 
could  only  be  present  in  one  place  at  a  time.  Luther  then 
asked,  with  reference  to  the  objection  that  Christ  was  in 
heaven  and  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  why  Zwingli  insisted 
on  taking  those  words  in  such  a  nakedly  literal  sense. 
He  declined  to  enter  upon  explanations  as  to  the  locality  of 
the  Body,  though  he  could  well  have  disputed  for  a  long 
time  on  that  subject :  for  the  omnipotence  of  God,  he  said, 
by  virtue  whereof  that  Body  was  present  everywhere  at  the 
Sacrament,  stood  above  all  mathematics.  Of  greater  weight 
to  him  must  have  been  the  argument  of  Zwingli,  which  at 
any  rate  had  a  Christian  and  biblical  aspect,  that  Christ 
with  His  flesh  became  like  his  human  brethren,  while  they 
again  at  the  last  day  are  to  be  fashioned  like  unto  his 
glorified  Body,  though  incapable,  nevertheless,  of  being  in 
different  places  at  the  same  time.  Luther  rejected  this  argu- 
ment, however,  on  the  ground  of  the  distinction  he  was 
careful  to  draw  between  the  actual  attributes  which  Christ 
possessed  in  common  with  all  Christians,  and  those  which 
He  did  not  so  possess  at  all,  or  possessed  in  a  manner 
peculiar  to  Himself,  and  exalting  him  far  above  mankind. 
For  example,  Christ  had  no  wife,  as  men^have. 

The  next  day,  Sunday,  Luther  preached  the  early 
morning  sermon.  He  connected  his  remarks  with  the 
Gospel  for  the  day,  and  dwelt  with  freshness  and  power, 


CHURCH  DIVISIONS  IN  GERMANY.  395 

but  without  any  reference  to  the  controversy  then  pending, 
on  forgiveness  of  sin  and  justification  by  faith. 

The  disputation,  however,  was  resumed  later  on  in  the 
morning.  The  subject  of  discussion  was  still  the  presence 
of  Christ's  Body  in  the  Sacrament.  Luther  persisted  in 
refusing  to  regard  that  Body  as  one  involving  the  idea  of 
limits  :  the  Body  here  was  not  local  or  circumscribed  by 
bounds.  The  Swiss,  on  the  other  hand,  did  not  deny  the 
possibility  of  a  miracle,  whereby  God  might  permit  a  body 
to  be  in  more  than  one  place  at  the  same  time ;  but  then 
ihey  demanded  proof  that  such  a  miracle  was  really 
effected  with  the  Body  of  Christ.  Luther  again  appealed 
to  the  words  before  him  :  '  This  is  My  Body.'  He  said  :  '  I 
cannot  slur  over  the  words  of  our  Lord.  I  cannot  but 
acknowledge  thaC  the  Body  of  Christ  is  there.'  Here 
Zwingli  quickly  interrupted  him  with  the  remark  that 
Luther  himself  restricted  Christ's  Body  to  a  place,  for  the 
adverb  '  there '  was  an  adverb  of  place.  Luther,  however, 
refused  to  have  his  off-hand  expression  so  interpreted,  and 
again  deprecated  the  mathematical  argument.  The  same 
day,  the  second  of  the  debate,  Zwingli  and  Oecolampadius 
sought  to  fortify  their  theory  by  evidence  adduced  from 
Christian  antiquity.  On  some  points  at  least  they  were 
able  to  appeal  to  Augustine.  But  Luther  put  a  different 
construction  on  the  passages  they  quoted,  and  refused 
altogether  to  accept  him  as  an  authority  against  Scripture. 
That  evening  the  disputation  was  concluded  by  each  party 
protesting  that  their  doctrine  remained  unrefuted  by  Scrip- 
ture, and  leaving  their  opponents  to  the  judgment  of  God, 
by  whom  they  might  still  be  converted.  Zwingli  broke 
into  tears. 

Philip  in  vain  endeavoured  to  bring  the  contending 
parties  to  a  closer  understanding.  Just  then  the  news 
came  that  the  fearful  pestilence,  the  Sweating  Sickness,  had 
broken  out  in  the  town.  All  further  proceedings  were 
stopped  at   once,    and   everyone   hurried   away    with    his 


396  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE    CHURCH. 

guests.  The  Landgrave  only  hastily  arranged  that  in 
regard  to  the  points  of  Christian  belief  in  which  it  was 
doubtful  how  far  the  Swiss  agreed  with  the  Evangelical 
faith,  a  series  of  propositions  should  be  drawn  up  by 
Luther,  and  signed  by  the  theologians  on  both  sides.  This 
was  done  on  the  Monday.  They  are  the  fifteen  '  Articles 
of  Marburg.'  They  expressed  unity  in  all  other  doctrines, 
and  in  the  Sacrament  also,  in  so  far  as  they  declared  that 
the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar  is  a  Sacrament  of  the  true 
Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,  and  that  the  '  spiritual  eating  ' 
of  that  Body  is  the  primary  condition  required.  The  only 
point  left  in  dispute  was  '  whether  the  true  Body  and  Blood 
of  Christ  are  present  bodily  in  the  Jbread  and  wine.' 

If  we  compare  the  manner  in  which  this  disputation 
at  Marburg  was  conducted  with  the  previous  character  of 
the  contest,  in  which  the  one  party  had  denounced  their 
opponents  as  diabolical  fanatics,  and  the  other  as  reaction- 
ary Papists  and  worshippers  of  '  a  god  made  of  bread,'  it 
will  be  evident  that  some  results  of  importance  at  least 
had  been  attained  by  the  discussion  itself  and  the  mode  in 
which  it  had  been  held.  The  tone  here,  from  first  to  last, 
was  more  courteous,  nay,  even  friendly  in  comparison. 
And  the  moderation  now  used  by  these  frank,  outspoken 
men,  so  passionately  excited  hitherto,  could  not  have  re- 
sulted solely  from  self-imposed  restraint.  Luther,  when  he 
wished  to  speak  very  emphatically,  addressed  his  opponents 
as  'my  dearest  sirs.'  Brenz,  who  was  an  eye-witness, 
tells  us  one  might  have  thought  Luther  and  Zwingli  were 
brothers.  And,  in  fact,  on  all  the  main  doctrines  but  that 
one  they  agreed.  Finer  distinctions  of  theory,  which 
might  have  furnished  food  for  argument,  were  mutually 
waived.  But  the  essential  divergence  between  them  on 
the  one  great  point  of  the  Sacrament,  and  the  spirit  mani- 
fested in  regard  to  it,  made  it  impossible  for  Luther  to  hold 
out  to  Zwingli  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  which  the 
latter  and  his  party  so  earnestly  desired.     Luther  held  to 


Lih^^^wt^.^ 


/  "/ 


Fio.  39. 

Facsijole  of  the  Superscription  and  Sionatubes  to  the  Marburg  Articles. 


398  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

his  opinion  :  '  Yours  is  a  different  spirit  from  ours.'  His  com- 
panions unanimously  agreed  with  him  that  though  they 
might  entertain  sentiments  of  friendship  and  Christian 
love  towards  them,  they  dared  not  acknowledge  them  as 
brethren  in  Christ.  In  the  '  Articles '  the  only  mention 
made  of  this  matter  was  that  although  they  had  not  yet 
agreed  on  that  point,  still  *  each  party  should  treat  the 
other  with  Christian  charity,  so  far  as  each  one's  conscience 
would  permit.' 

On  Tuesday  afternoon  Luther  left  Marburg,  and  set 
out  on  his  journey  homeward.  .  At  the  wish  of  the  Elector 
he  travelled  by  way  of  Schleiz,  where  John  was  then 
consulting  with  the  Margrave  George  of  Brandenburg 
about  the  Protestant  alliance.  They  desired  of  Luther  a 
short  and  comprehensive  confession  of  evangelical  faith,  as 
members  of  which  they  wished  to  enrol  themselves.  Luther 
immediately  compiled  one  accordingly,  upon  the  basis  of 
the  Marburg  Articles,  making  some  additions  and  strength- 
ening some  expressions  in  accordance  with  his  own  views. 
About  October  18  he  returned  to  Wittenberg. 

This  confession  was  submitted  without  delay  to  a  meet- 
ing of  Protestants  at  Schwabach.  The  result  was,  that 
Ulm  and  Strasburg  declined  to  subscribe  a  compact  from 
which  the  Swiss  were  excluded. 

Within  the  league  itself,  the  question  was  now  seriously 
considered,  how  far  the  Protestant  States  might  go,  in  the 
event  of  the  Emperor  really  seeking  to  coerce  them  to  sub- 
mission— whether,  in  a  word,  they  could  venture  to  oppose 
force  to  force.  Luther's  opinion,  however,  on  this  point 
remained  unshaken.  Whatever  civil  law  and  counsellors 
might  say,  it  was  conclusive  for  them  as  Christians,  in  his 
opinion,  that  civil  authority  was  ordained  by  God,  and  that 
the  Emperor,  as  the  lord  paramount  of  Germany,  was  the 
supreme  civil  authority  in  the  nation.  His  fii'st  considera- 
tion was  the  imperial  dignity,  as  he  conceived  it,  and  the 
relative  position  and  duties  of  the  princes  of  the  Empire. 


CHURCH  DIVISIONS  IN  GERMANY.  399 

As  subjects  of  the  Emperor,  he  regarded  these  prmces  in 
the  same  light  as  he  regarded  their  own  territorial  sub- 
jects, the  burgomasters  of  the  towns  and  the  various  other 
magnates  and  nobles,  to  whom  they  themselves  had  never 
conceded  any  right  to  oppose,  either  by  protest  or  force, 
their  own  regulations,  as  territorial  sovereigns,  in  matters 
affecting  the  Church.  Not,  indeed,  that  he  required  a 
simply  passive  obedience,  however  badly  the  authorities 
and  the  Emperor  might  behave ;  on  the  contrary,  he  ad- 
mitted the  possibility  of  having  to  depose  the  Emperor. 
'  Sin  itself,'  he  said,  '  does  not  destroy  authority  and  obe- 
dience ;  but  the  punishment  of  sin  destroys  them,  as,  for 
instance,  if  the  Empire  and  the  Electors  were  unanimously 
to  dethrone  the  Emperor,  and  make  him  cease  to  be  one. 
But  so  long  as  he  remains  unpunished  and  Emperor,  no 
one  should  refuse  him  obedience.'  Nothing,  therefore,  in 
his  opinion,  short  of  a  common  act  of  the  Estates  could 
provide  a  remedy  against  an  unjust,  tyrannical,  and  law- 
breaking  Emperor,  while  at  present  it  was  apparent  that 
Charles  and  the  majority  of  the  Diet  were  agreed.  Hence 
he  refused  to  recognise  the  right  of  individual  States  to  an 
appeal  to  force,  for  his  theory  of  the  German  Empire  in- 
volved the  idea  of  a  firm  and  united  community  or  State, 
and  not  in  any  way  that  of  a  league  or  federation,  the 
independent  members  of  which  might  take  up  arms  against 
a  breach  of  their  articles  of  agreement.  This  theory  was 
shared  by  his  Elector  and  the  Nürembergers.  Just  as 
these  Protestants  for  conscience  sake  had  refused  obedience 
to  the  resolution  of  the  Diet  at  Spires,  so  they  felt  them- 
selves bound  by  conscience  to  submit  to  the  consequences 
of  that  refusal.  Luther's  opinion,  therefore,  as  to  the 
proper  attitude  for  the  Protestant  States  was  the  same  as 
he  had  expressed  to  the  Elector  Frederick  on  his  return 
from  the  Wartburg.  It  was  their  duty,  he  said,  if  God 
should  permit  matters  to  go  so  far,. to  allow  the  Emperor 
to  enter  their  territory  and  act  against  their  subjects,  with- 


400  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

out,  however,  giving  their  assent  or  assisting  him.  But  he 
added :  '  It  is  sheer  want  of  faith  not  to  trust  to  God  to 
protect  us,  without  any  wit  or  power  of  man.  ...  "In 
quietness  and  confidence  shall  be  your  strength." ' 

Meanwhile  Luther  was  anxious  to  respond  still  further 
to  the  call  of  duty  against  the  Turks.  Their  multitudinous 
hosts  had  advanced  as  far  as  Vienna,  and  had  severely 
harassed  that  city,  which,  though  defended  with  heroic 
valour,  was  but  badly  fortified.  A  general  assault  was  made 
in  force  while  Luther  was  on  his  homeward  journey.  The 
news  stirred  him  to  his  inmost  soul.  He  ascribed  to  it,  and 
to  their  god,  the  devil,  the  violent  temptations  and  anguish 
of  soul  from  which  he  was  then  suffering  again.  Immediately 
after  his  return,  he  undertook  to  write  a  '  War  sermon 
agamst  the  Turks.'  On  October  26  he  received  the  tidings 
that  they  were  compelled  to  retreat.  This  was  a  '  heaven- 
sent miracle '  to  him.  But  though  his  former  exhortations 
and  warnings  had  seemed  to  many  exaggerated,  he  was  right 
in  perceiving  that  the  danger  was  only  averted.  He  published 
his  sermon,  a  new  edition  of  which  had  to  be  issued  with  the 
new  year. 

He  saw  in  the  Turks  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  of 
Ezekiel  and  the  Eevelation  of  St.  John  about  Gog  and 
Magog,  and  therewith  a  judgment  of  God  for  the  punish- 
ment of  corrupt  Christendom.  But  just  as  in  his  first 
pamphlet  he  had  called  on  the  authorities,  in  virtue  of 
their  appointment  by  God,  to  protect  their  own  people 
against  the  enemy,  so  he  now  wished  further  to  make  all 
German  Christians  strong  in  conscience  and  full  of  courage, 
to  take  the  field  under  their  banner,  according  to  God's 
command.  He  set  before  them  the  example  of  the  '  beloved 
St.  Maurice  and  his  companions,'  and  of  many  other  saints, 
who  had  served  in  arms  their  Emperor  as  knights  or  citizens. 
He  would,  if  danger  came  in  earnest,  '  fain  have,  whoever 
could,  defend  themselves,— young  and  old,  husband  and 
wife,  man-servant  and  maid-servant,'  just  as,  according  to 


CHURCH  DIVISIONS  IN  GERMANY.  401 

ancient  Eoman  writers,  the  German  wives  and  maidens 
fought  togetlier  with  the  men.  He  looked  on  no  house  as 
so  meaii  that  it  might  not  do  something  to  repel  the  foe. 
Was  it  not  better  to  be  slain  at  home,  in  obedience  to  God, 
than  to  be  taken  prisoners  and  dragged  away  like  cattle  to 
be  sold  ?  At  the  same  time  he  exhorted  and  encouraged 
those  whom  this  misfortune  befell,  that,  as  Jeremiah 
admonished  the  Jews  in  Babylon,  they  should  be  patient 
in  prison,  and  cling  firmly  to  the  faith,  and  neither  through 
their  misery  nor  through  the  hypocritical  worship  of  the 
Turks,  allow  themselves  to  be  seduced  into  becoming  rene- 
gades. 

Such  is  w^hat  he  preached  to  the  people,  while  he  had  to 
complain  in  his  letters  to  friends  that  '  the  Emperor  Charles 
threatens  us  even  still  more  dreadfully  than  does  the  Tui  k  ; 
so  that  on  both  sides  we  have  an  Emperor  as  our  enemy,  an 
Eastern  and  a  Western  one.'  And  in  those  days  also  he 
expressed  his  opinion  that  those  w^ho  confessed  the  gospel 
should  keep  their  hands  *  unsoiled  by  blood  and  crime '  as 
regards  their  Emperor,  and,  even  though  his  behaviour 
might  be  a  '  very  threat  of  the  devil,'  should  keep  steadfastly 
to  their  God,  with  prayer,  supplication,  and  hope, — to  that 
God  Whose  manifest  help  had  hitherto  been  so  abundantly 
vouchsafed  to  them. 


D  D 


402  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


CHAPTEK  V. 

THE    DIET    OF   AUGSBUEG   AND    LUTHER   AT    COBURG,    1530. 

A  PROCLAMATION  of  the  Emperor,  convoking  a  new  Diet  at 
Augsburg  for  April  8,  1530,  seemed  now  to  indicate  a  more 
pacific  demeanour.  For  in  assigning  to  this  Diet  the  task  of 
consulting  '  how  best  to  deal  with  and  determine  the  differ- 
ences and  division  in  the  holy  faith  and  the  Christian  re- 
ligion,' it  desired,  for  this  object,  that '  every  man's  opinions, 
thoughts,  and  notions  should  be  heard  in  love  and  charity, 
and  carefully  weighed,  and  that  men  should  thus  be  brought 
in  common  to  Christian  truth,  and  be  reconciled.'  The 
Emperor  by  no  means  meant,  as  might  be  inferred  from  this 
proclamation,  that  the  two  opposing  parties  should  treat 
and  arrange  with  each  other  on  an  equal  footing;  the 
rights  of  the  Komish  Church  remained,  as  before,  unalter- 
ably fixed.  He  only  wished  to  avoid,  if  possible,  the  dangers 
of  internal  warfare.  Even  the  Papal  legate  Campeggio, 
agreed  that  conciliatory  measures  might  first  be  tried ;  the 
arrangements  for  the  visitation  of  the  Saxon  Electorate 
were  already  construed  at  Rome,  as  indeed  by  many 
German  Catholics,  into  a  sign  that  people  there  were 
frightened  at  the  so-called  freedom  of  the  gospel,  and  were 
inclined  to  return  to  the  old  system.  But  Luther  at  this 
moment  disi)layed  again  the  confidence  which  he  always 
so  gladly  reposed  in  his  Emperor.  He  announced  on 
March  14  to  Jonas,  then  absent  on  the  business  of  the  visi- 
tation: *  The  Emperor  Charles  writes  that  he  will  come  in 
person  to  Augsburg,  to  settle  everything  peaceably.'  The 
Elector   John   immediately  instructed   his   theologians   to 


THE  DIET  OE  AUGSBURG.  403 

draw  up  for  him  articles  in  view  of  the  proceedings  at  the 
Diet,  embodying  a  statement  of  their  own  opinions.  They 
were  also  required  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness  to  accom- 
pany him  on  his  journey  to  Augsburg.  There  was,  however, 
no  hurry  about  arriving  there  ;  for  the  Emperor  came  thither 
so  slowly  from  Italy,  that  it  was  found  impossible  to  meet 
on  the  day  originally  appointed. 

On  April  3  Luther,  Melancthon,  and  Jonas  went  to  the 
Elector  at  Torgau,  in  order  to  start  with  him  from  there. 
He  took  Spalatin  also  with  him,  and  Agricola  as  preacher. 
The  10th,  Palm  Sunday,  they  spent  at  Weimar,  where  the 
prince  wished  to  partake  of  the  sacrament.  At  Coburg, 
where  they  arrived  on  the  15th,  they  exj^ected  to  receive 
further  news  as  to  the  day  fixed  for  the  actual  opening  of 
the  Diet.  Luther  preached  here  on  Easter  Day,  and  on 
the  following  Monday  and  Thursday,  upon  the  Easter  texts 
and  the  grand  acts  of  Kedemption. 

On  Friday,  the  22nd,  the  Elector  received  an  intima- 
tion from  the  Emperor  to  appear  at  Augsburg  at  the  end  of 
the  month.  The  next  morning  he  set  off  at  once  with  his 
companions.  Luther,  however,  was  to  remain  behind.  The 
man  on  whom  lay  the  ban  of  the  Empire  and  Church  could 
not  possibly,  however  favourably  inclined  the  Emperor 
might  be  towards  him,  have  appeared  before  the  Emperor, 
the  Estates,  and  the  delegates  of  the  Pope ;  moreover, 
no  safe-conduct  would  have  availed  him.  Luther  seems, 
nevertheless,  to  have  been  ingenuous  enough  to  think 
the  contrary.  At  least,  he  wrote  to  a  friend  that  the 
Elector  had  bidden  him  remain  at  Coburg;  why,  he 
knew  not.  To  another  friend,  however,  he  alleged  as  a 
reason,  that  his  going  would  not  have  been  safe.  But 
his  prince  was  anxious  to  keep  him  at  any  rate  as  close  by 
as  possible,  at  a  safe  place  on  the  borders  of  his  territory 
in  the  direction  of  Augsbm'g,  so  that  he  might  be  able  to 
obtain  advice  from  him  in  case  of  need.  Moreover,  he  con- 
templated the  possibility  of  his  being  summoned  later  on 

D  D  2 


404  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 

to  Augsburg.  A  message  from  the  one  place  to  the  other 
took,  at  that  time,  four  days  as  a  rule. 

Accordmgly,  on  the  night  of  the  22nd,  Luther  was  con- 
veyed to  the  fortress  overlooking  the  town  of  Coburg. 
This  was  the  residence  assigned  to  him. 

His  first  day  here  passed  by  unoccupied.  A  box  which 
he  had  brought,  containing  papers  and  other  things,  had 
not  yet  been  delivered  to  him.  He  did  not  even  see  any 
governor  of  the  castle.  So  he  looked  around  him  leisurely 
from  the  height,  which  offered  a  wide  and  varied  prospect, 
and  examined  the  apartments  now  opened  for  his  use. 
The  principal  part  of  the  castle,  the  so-called  Prince's 
Building,  had  been  assigned  him,  and  he  was  given  at 
once  the  keys  of  all  the  rooms  it  contained.  The  one 
which  he  chose  as  his  sitting-room  is  still  shown.  He  was 
told  that  over  thirty  people  took  their  meals  at  the  castle. 

But  his  thoughts  were  still  with  his  distant  friends. 
He  wrote  that  afternoon  to  Melancthon,  Jonas,  and  Spalatin. 
'  Dearest  Philip,'  he  begins  to  Melancthon,  '  we  have  at  last 
reached  our  Sinai,  but  we  will  make  a  Sion  of  this  Sinai, 
and  here  will  I  build  three  tabernacles,  one  to  the  Psalms, 
one  to  the  Prophets,  and  one  to  iE  sop.  ...  It  is  a  very 
attractive  place,  and  just  made  for  study;  only  your  absence 
grieves  me.  My  whole  heart  and  soul  are  stirred  and 
incensed  against  the  Turks  and  Mahomet,  when  I  see  this 
intolerable  raging  of  the  devil.  Therefore  I  shall  pray  and  cry 
to  God,  nor  rest  until  I  know  that  my  cry  is  heard  in  heaven. 
The  sad  condition  of  our  German  Empire  distresses  you 
more.'  Then,  after  expressing  a  wish  that  the  Lord  might 
send  his  friend  refreshing  sleep,  and  free  his  heart  from 
care,  he  told  him  about  his  residence  at  the  castle,  in  the 
*  empire  of  the  birds.'  In  his  letters  to  Jonas  and  Spalatin 
he  indulged  in  humorous  descriptions  of  the  cries  of  the 
ravens  and  jackdaws  which  he  had  heard  since  four  o'clock 
in  the  mornmg.  A  whole  troop,  he  said,  of  sophists 
and  schoolmen  were  gathered  around  him.     Here  he  had 


THE  DIET  OF  AUGSBURG.  405 

also  his  Diet,  composed  of  very  proud  kings,  dukes,  and 
grandees,  who  busied  themselves  about  the  empire  and 
sent  out  incessantly  their  mandates  through  the  air.  This 
year,  he  heard,  they  had  arranged  a  crusade  against  the 
wheat,  barley,  and  other  kinds  of  corn,  and  these  fathers 
of  the  Fatherland  already  hoped  for  grand  victories  and 
heroic  deeds.  This,  said  Luther,  he  wrote  in  fun,  but  in 
serious  fun,  to  chase  aw^ay  if  possible  the  heavy  thoughts 
which  crowded  on  his  mind.  A  few  days  later  he  enlarged 
further  on  this  sportive  simile  in  a  letter  to  his  Wittenberg 
table-companions,  i.e.  the  young  men  of  the  university  who, 
according  to  custom,  boarded  with  him.  He  was  delighted 
to  see  how  valiantly  these  knights  of  the  Diet  strutted  about 
and  wiped  their  bills,  and  he  hoped  they  might  some  day 
or  other  be  spitted  on  a  hedge-stake.  He  fancied  he  could 
hear  all  the  sophists  and  papists  with  their  lovely  voices 
around  him,  and  he  saw  what  a  right  useful  folk  they  were, 
who  ate  up  everything  on  the  earth  and  '  whiled  away  the 
heavy  time  with  chattering.'  He  was  glad,  however,  to 
have  heard  the  first  nightingale,  who  did  not  often  venture 
to  come  in  April. 

As  companions  he  had  his  amanuensis,  Veit  Dietrich 
from  Nuremberg,  and  his  nephew  Cyriac  Kaufmann  from 
Mansfeld,  a  young  student.  The  former,  born  in  1506,  had 
been  at  the  university  of  Wittenberg  since  1523  ;  he  soon 
became  preacher  in  his  native  town,  where  he  distin- 
guished himself  by  his  loyalty  and  courage.  They  were 
all  hospitably  entertained  at  the  castle.  Luther,  in  these 
comfortable  quarters,  let  his  beard  grow  again,  as  he  had 
formerly  done  at  the  Wartburg. 

In  that  same  letter  to  Melancthon,  Luther  mentioned 
several  writings  which  he  had  in  prospect.  His  chief  work 
was  a  public  '  Admonition  to  the  Clergy  assembled  at  the 
Diet  at  Augsburg.'  He  wished,  as  he  said  in  the  intro- 
duction, since  he  could  not  personally  appear  at  the  Diet, 
at  least  to  be  among  them  in  writing  with  this  his  '  dumb 


4o6 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 


and  weak  message ; '  which  he  had  expressed,  however,  in 
the  strongest  and  most  forcible  language  at  his  command. 
As  for  his  own  cause,  he  declared  that  for  it  no  Diet  was 
necessary.  It  had  been  brought  thus  far  by  the  true 
Helper  and  Adviser,  and  there  it  would  remain.     He  re- 


FiG.  40. — Veit  Dietrich,  as  Pastor  of  Nuremberg. 
(From  an  old  -woodcut.) 


minded  them  once  more  of  the  chief  scandals  and  iniquities 
against  which  he  had  been  forced  to  contend  ;  he  warned 
them  not  to  strain  the  strmgs  too  tightly,  lest  perhaps  a 
new  rebellion  might  arise ;  and  he  promised  them  that  if 
only  they  would  leave  the  gospel  free,  they  should  be  left 
in  undisturbed  possession  of  their  principalities,  their  privi- 


THE  DIET  OF  AUGSBURG.  407 

leges,  and  their  property,  which  in  fact  was  all  they  cared 
for.     This  tract  was  already  printed  in  May. 

He  now  took  up  in  earnest  the  labours  he  had  spoken 
of  to  Melancthon.  His  chief  work  was  the  continuation  of 
his  German  Bible,  namely  the  translation  of  the  Prophets. 
He  had  long  complained  of  the  difficulties  presented  by 
these  Books,  and  he  now  hoped  to  have  the  leisure  they 
required.  Such  was  his  zeal  that,  when  he  came  to 
Jeremiah,  he  looked  forward  to  finishing  all  the  Prophets 
by  Whitsuntide,  but  he  soon  saw  that  this  was  impos- 
sible. He  published  the  prophecy  of  Ezekiel  about  Gog 
and  Magog  by  itself.  His  wish  was  to  treat  of  various  por- 
tions of  the  Psalms,  his  own  constant  book  of  comfort  and 
prayer,  for  the  benefit  of  his  congregation  ;  and  he  began, 
accordingly,  with  a  Commentary  on  the  118th  Psalm.  He 
expounded  to  Dietrich  whilst  at  Coburg  the  first  twenty-five 
Psalms ;  and  the  transcript  of  his  commentary  on  these, 
which  Dietrich  left  behind  him,  was  afterwards  printed. 

And  to  these  works  he  wished  to  add  the  fables  of  iE  sop. 
His  desire  was  to  '  adapt  them  for  youth  and  common  men, 
that  they  should  be  of  some  profit  to  the  Germans.'  For 
among  them,  he  said,  were  to  be  found,  set  forth  in  simple 
•words,  the  most  beautiful  lessons  and  warnings,  to  show 
men  how  to  live  wisely  and  peacefully  among  bad  people  in 
the  false  and  wicked  world.  Truth  which  none  would  endure, 
but  which  no  man  could  do  without,  was  clothed  there  in 
pleasing  colours  of  fiction.  For  this  work,  however,  Luther 
had  very  little  time ;  we  possess  only  thirteen  fables  of  his 
version.  He  has  rendered  them  in  the  simplest  popular 
language,  and  expressed  the  morals  in  many  appropriate 
German  proverbs. 

Luther  thought  at  first  that,  with  these  occupations,  he 
had  better  have  remained  at  Wittenberg,  where,  as  pro- 
fessor, he  would  have  been  of  more  service. 

Soon  his  bodily  sufferings — the  singing  and  noise  in  the 
head,  and  the  tendency  to  faintness, — began  again  to  attack 


4o8  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 

him ;  so  that  for  several  days  he  could  neither  read  nor 
write,  and  for  several  weeks  could  not  work  continuously 
for  any  length  of  time.  He  did  not  know  whether  it  was 
the  effect  of  Coburg  hospitality,  or  whether  Satan  was  at 
fault.  Dietrich  thought  his  illness  must  be  caused  by 
Satan,  smce  Luther  had  been  particularly  careful  about 
his  diet.  He  told  also  of  a  fiery,  serpent-like  apparition, 
which  he  and  Luther  had  seen  one  evening  in  June  at  the 
foot  of  the  Castle  Hill.  The  same  night  Luther  fainted 
away,  and  the  next  day  was  very  ill ;  and  this  fact  confirmed 
Dietrich  in  his  belief. 

On  June  5  Luther  received  the  news  of  the  death  of 
his  aged  father,  who  breathed  his  last  at  Mansfeld,  on 
Sunday,  May  29,  after  long  suffering,  and  in  the  firm  belief 
in  the  gospel  preached  by  his  son.  Luther  was  deeply  moved 
by  this  intelligence.  He  had  never  ceased  to  treat  him  with 
the  same  high  filial  veneration  that  had  formerly  prompted 
him  to  dedicate  to  his  parent  his  treatise  on  Monastic 
Vows,  and  to  invite  him  to  the  celebration  of  his  marriage, 
made,  as  we  have  seen,  in  accordance  with  his  father's  wish. 
Since  his  marriage,  indeed,  his  parents  had  come  to  visit 
him  at  Wittenberg  ;  and  the  town  accounts  for  1527  contain 
an  item  of  expense  for  a  gallon  of  wine,  given  as  a  mn 
d'honneur  to  old  Luther  on  that  occasion.  It  was  then  that 
Cranach  painted  the  portraits  of  Luther's  parents  which 
are  now  to  be  seen  at  the  Wartburg.  Luther  had  heard 
from  his  brother  James  in  February  1530,  that  their  father 
was  dangerously  ill.  He  sent  a  letter  to  him  thereupon,  on 
the  15th  of  that  month,  by  the  hands  of  his  nephew 
Cyriac.  He  wrote  :  '  It  would  be  a  great  joy  to  me  if  only 
you  and  my  mother  could  come  to  us  here.  My  Kate  and 
all  pray  for  it  with  tears.  I  should  hope  we  would  do  our 
best  to  make  you  comfortable.'  Meanwhile  he  prayed 
earnestly  to  his  Heavenly  Father  to  strengthen  and  en- 
lighten with  His  Holy  Spirit  this  father  whom  He  had 
given  him  on  earth.  He  would  leave  it  in  the  hands  of  his 
dear   Lord   and    Saviour  whether   they  should   meet   one 


THE  DIET  OE  AUGSBURG,  409 

another  again  on  earth  or  in  heaven ;  '  for,'  said  he,  '  we 
doubt  not  but  that  we  shall  shortly  see  each  other  again 
in  the  presence  of  Christ,  since  the  departure  from  this  life 
is  a  far  smaller  matter  with  God,  than  if  I  were  to  come 
hither  from  you  at  Mansfeld,  or  you  were  to  go  to  Mansfeld 
from  me  at  Wittenberg.'  After  he  had  opened  the  letter 
with  the  news  of  his  father's  death,  he  said  to  Dietrich,  '  So 
then,  my  father  too  is  dead,'  and  then  took  his  Psalter  at 
once,  and  went  to  his  room,  to  give  vent  to  his  tears.  He 
expressed  his  grief  and  emotion  the  same  day  in  a  letter  to 
Melancthon.  Everything,  he  said,  that  he  was  or  had,  he 
had  received  through  his  Creator  from  this  beloved  father. 

He  kept  up  his  intimacy  with  his  friends  at  Wittenberg 
through  his  letters  to  his  wife,  and  by  a  correspondence 
with  his  friend  Jerome  Weiler,  who  had  come  to  live  in  his 
house,  and  who  assisted  in  the  education  of  his  son,  little 
Hans.  Weiler,  formerly  a  jurist,  and  already  thirty  years 
old,  was  then  studying  theology  at  Wittenberg.  He  suffered 
from  low  spirits,  and  Luther  repeatedly  sent  him  from 
Coburg  comfort  and  good  advice.  The  little  Hans  had 
now  begun  his  lesions,  and  Weiler  praised  him  as  a  pains- 
taking pupil.  Luther's  well-known  letter  to  him  was  dated 
from  Coburg,  June  19.  Written  in  the  midst  of  the  most 
serious  studies  and  the  most  important  events  and  reflec- 
tions, it  must  on  no  account  be  omitted  in  a  survey  of 
Luther's  life  and  character.     It  runs  as  follows : — 

'  Grace  and  peace  in  Christ,  my  dear  little  son.  I  am 
pleased  to  see  that  thou  learnest  thy  lessons  well,  and 
prayest  diligently.  Do  thus,  my  little  son,  and  persevere ; 
when  I  come  home  I  will  bring  thee  a  fine  ''  fairing."  I 
know  of  a  pretty  garden  where  merry  children  run  about 
that  wear  little  golden  coats,  and  gather  nice  apples  and 
pears,  and  cherries,  and  plums  under  the  trees,  and  sing 
and  dance,  and  ride  on  pretty  horses  with  gold  bridles  and 
silver  saddles.  I  asked  the  man  of  the  place,  whose  the 
garden  was,  and  whose  the  children  were.  He  said,  ''  These 
are  the  children  who  pray  and  learn,  and  are  good."     Then 


4IO  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 

I  answered,  "  Dear  sii',  I  also  have  a  son  who  is  called  Hans 
Luther.  May  he  not  also  come  into  this  garden,  and  eat 
these  nice  pears  and  apples,  and  ride  a  little  horse  and  play 
with  these  children?"  The  man  said,  "If  he  says  his 
prayers,  and  learns,  and  is  good,  he  too  may  come  into 
the  garden ;  and  Lippus  and  Jost  may  come,^  and  when 
they  all  come  back,  they  shall  have  pipes  and  drums  and 
lutes  and  all  sorts  of  stringed  instruments,  and  they  shall 
dance  and  shoot  with  little  crossbows."  Then  he  showed 
me  a  smooth  lawn  in  the  garden  laid  out  for  dancing, 
where  hung  pipes  of  pure  gold,  and  drums  and  beautiful 
silver  crossbows.  But  it  was  still  early,  and  the  children 
had  not  dined.  So  I  could  not  wait  for  the  dance,  and  said 
to  the  man,  "  Dear  sir,  I  will  go  straight  home  and  write 
all  this  to  my  dear  little  son  Hans,  that  he  may  pray 
diligently  and  learn  well  and  be  good,  and  so  come  into 
this  garden  ;  but  he  has  an  aunt,  Lene,^  whom  he  must 
bring  with  him."  And  the  man  answered,  "  So  it  shall  be  ; 
go  home  and  write  as  you  say."  Therefore,  dear  little  son 
Hans,  learn  and  pray  with  a  good  heart,  and  tell  Lippus 
and  Jost  to  do  the  same,  and  then  you  will  all  come  to 
the  beautiful  garden  together.  Almighty  God  guard  you. 
Give  my  love  to  aunt  Lene,  and  give  her  a  kiss  for  me. 
In  the  year  1530. — Your  loving  father,  Martin  Luther.' 

The  intercourse  between  Coburg  and  Augsburg  was,  as 
may  be  imagined,  well  kept  up  by  letters  and  messengers. 

But  the  crisis  of  importance  arrived  when  now  the 
great  decision  approached,  or  at  least  seemed  to  approach, 
for  it  was  most  unexpectedly  delayed. 

Though  the  Elector  had  entered  Augsburg  on  May  2, 
the  Emperor  did  not  arrive  there  till  June  15.  He  had 
stopped  on  the  way  at  Innspruck,  where  Duke  George  and 
other  princes  hostile  to  the  Keformation  hastened  to  present 
themselves  before  him. 

^  Melancthon's  son  Philip,  and  Jonas's  son  Jodocus. 

^  Hans's  great-aunt,  Magdalen,  mentioned  in  Part  VI.  Ch.  vii. 


THE   DIET  OF  AUGSBURG.  411 

In  the  meanwhile,  Melancthon  worked  with  great  in- 
dustry and  anxious  labour  at  the  Apology  and  Confession 
which  the  Elector  of  Saxony  was  to  lay  before  the  Diet. 
Luther  warned  him,  by  his  own  examjile,  against  ruin- 
ing his  head  by  immoderate  exertion.  He  wrote  to  him 
on  May  12 :  'I  command  you  and  all  your  company, 
that  they  compel  you,  under  pain  of  excommunication,  to 
keep  your  poor  body  by  rule  and  order,  so  that  you  may 
not  kill  yourself  and  imagine  that  you  do  so  from  obedience 
to  God.  We  serve  God  also  by  taking  holiday  and  resting; 
yes,  indeed,  in  no  other  way  better.'  Melancthon  had 
begun  this  work  at  Coburg,  while  there  with  Luther,  and 
based  his  most  important  propositions  of  dogma  on  the 
articles  which  Luther  had  drawn  up  in  the  previous 
autumn  at  Schwabach.  His  chief  efforts,  however,  in 
accordance  with  his  own  inclination  and  line  of  thought, 
w^ere  directed  to  representmg  the  evangelical  doctrmes  as 
agreeing  with  the  traditional  doctrines  of  the  universal 
Christian  Church ;  and  the  Protestant  Keformation  as 
simply  the  abolition  of  certain  practical  abuses.  Never 
would  Luther  have  consented  to  submit  to  the  Diet,  and 
the  Papists  and  enemies  of  the  gospel  there  present,  a  Con- 
fession which  marked  so  faintly  the  gulf  of  difference  between 
himself  and  them.  Nevertheless  he  gladly  approved  of  this 
composition  of  his  peace-making  friend,  which  was  sent  to 
him  for  his  opinion  by  the  Elector  immediately  on  its  com- 
pletion, on  May  11.  His  verdict  was:  *I  like  it  well 
enough,  and  see  nothing  to  alter  or  improve  ;  indeed,  I 
could  not  do  so  if  I  would,  for  I  cannot  tread  so  softly  and 
gently.  May  Christ,  our  Lord,  help  that  it  may  bring 
forth  much  fruit,  as  we  hope  and  pray  it  will.'  Pie  en- 
couraged the  Elector,  in  a  letter  full  of  tender  words  of 
comfort,  to  keep  his  heart  firm  and  patient,  even  if  he  had 
to  stay  m  a  tedious  place.  He  pointed  out  to  him  God's 
great  token  of  His  love,  in  granting  so  freely  to  him  and  to 
his   people   the  word  of  grace,   and  especially  in  allowing 


412  RECONSTRUCTION   OF   THE   CHURCH. 

the  tender  youth,  the  boys  and  gWs  who  were  his  subjects, 
to  grow  up  in  his  country  as  in  a  pleasant  Paradise  of  God. 

News  now  reached  them  of  the  Emperor,  that  he  blamed 
the  Elector  for  the  non-execution  of  the  Edict  of  Worms, 
and  forbade  the  clergymen  whom  the  Protestant  princes 
had  brought  to  Augsburg,  to  preach  there, — a  prohibition 
against  which  even  Luther  admitted  they  were  powerless. 
On  the  other  side,  Melancthon  was  particularly  troubled 
and  annoyed  that  the  Landgrave  Philip  would  not  admit  a 
repudiation  of  Zwingli's  doctrine  in  the  Confession,  to  which 
Melancthon  attached  the  utmost  importance,  not  only  on 
account  of  the  intrinsic  objections  to  that  doctrine,  but 
chiefly  in  the  interests  of  bringing  about  a  reconciliation 
with  the  Catholics.  He  begged  Luther,  on  May  22,  to  try 
.and  influence  Philip  by  letter  on  this  point. 

Luther  appears  to  have  shown  but  little  inclination  to 
accede  to  the  request.  Melancthon,  waiting  for  his  assent, 
stopped  writing  to  him.  Meanwhile  Luther's  friends  at 
Augsburg  were  looking  with  anxiety  for  the  arrival  and  first 
appearance  of  the  Emperor.  Three  whole  weeks  passed  by 
before  Luther  again  received  a  letter  from  them;  it  was  just 
at  this  time  that  he  was  mourning  the  death  of  his  father. 

Luther  was  exceedingly  indignant  at  this  silence.  On 
receiving  another  letter,  on  June  13,  from  Melancthon,  who 
said  he  was  impatiently  waiting  for  the  letter  to  the  Land- 
grave, Luther  sent  back  the  messenger  without  an  answer, 
and  at  first  wns  unwilling  even  to  read  the  letter.  He  did, 
however,  now,  what  was  asked  of  him.  He  earnestly  but 
calmly  entreated  Philip  not  to  espouse  their  opponents' 
doctrine  of  the  Sacrament,  or  allow  himself  to  be  moved 
by  their  '  sweet  good  '  words.  And  when  now  Melancthon, 
whom  he  had  seriously  frightened  by  his  anger,  grew  rest- 
less and  desponding  and  sleepless  with  increasing  dis- 
quietude, through  the  difficulties  at  Augsburg,  the  threats 
of  his  embittered  Catholic  opponents,  and  the  anxiety  as  to 
submitting  the  Confession  to  the  Elector,  and  the  conse- 


THE  DIET  OF  AUGSBURG.  413 

quences  of  so  doing,  and  news  also  reached  Luther  of  the 
troubles  and  distress  of  his  other  friends,  he  repeatedly  sent 
to  them  at  Augsburg  fresh  words  of  encouragement,  com- 
fort, and  counsel,  which  remain  to  attest,  more  than  any- 
thing else,  the  nobleness  of  his  mind  and  character.  He 
speaks,  as  from  a  height  of  confident,  clear,  and  proud 
conviction,  to  those  who  are  struggling  in  the  whirl  and 
vortex  of  earthly  schemes  and  counsels.  He  has  gained 
this  height,  and  maintains  it  in  the  implicit  faith  with 
which  he  clings  to  the  invisible  God,  as  if  he  saw  Him ; 
and,  raised  above  the  world,  he  enjoys  filial  communion 
with  his  Heavenly  Father. 

In  answ^ering  another  anxious  letter  from  Melancthon  on 
the  27th,  he  reproved  his  friend  for  the  cares  which  he  allowed 
to  consume  him,  and  which  were  the  result,  he  said,  not  ol 
the  magnitude  of  the  task  before  him,  but  of  his  own  want  of 
faith.  *  Let  the  matter  be  ever  so  great,'  he  said,  '  great  also 
is  He  w^ho  has  begun  and  who  conducts  it ;  for  it  is  not  our 
work.  .  .  .  '*  Cast  thy  burthen  upon  the  Lord ;  the  Loi'd  is 
nigh  unto  all  them  that  call  upon  Him."  Does  He  say  that 
to  the  wind,  or  does  He  throw  his  words  before  animals? 
...  It  is  your  worldly  wisdom  that  torments  you,  and  not 
theology.  As  if  you,  with  your  useless  cares,  could  accom- 
plish anything.  What  more  can  the  devil  do  than  strangle 
us  ?  I  conjure  you,  who  in  all  other  matters  are  &o  ready 
to  fight,  to  fight  against  yourself  as  your  greatest  enemy.' 

Two  days  after,  he  had  already  another  letter  from  his 
friend  to  answer.  He  saw  from  it,  he  said,  the  labour  and 
trouble,  the  distress  and  tears  of  his  friends.  He  received 
also  the  Confession,  now  completed,  and  had  to  give  his 
opinion  whether  it  would  be  possible  to  make  still  more 
concessions  to  the  Romanists.  Upon  this  point  he  wrote  : 
'  Day  and  night  I  am  occupied  with  it,  I  turn  it  over  every 
way  in  my  mind,  I  meditate  and  argue,  and  examine  the 
Scriptures  on  the  subject,  and  more  and  more  convinced  do 
I  become  of  the  truth  of  our  doctrine,  and  more  resolved 


414  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 

never,  if  God  will,  to  allow  another  letter  to  be  torn  from 
us,  be  the  consequence  what  it  may.'  But  he  objected  to 
the  others  speaking  of  '  following  his  authority ;  '  the  cause 
was  theirs  as  much  as  his,  and  he  himself  would  defend  it, 
even  if  he  stood  alone.  He  then  referred  the  anxious 
Melancthon  again  to  that  Faith  which  had  certainly  no 
place  in  his  rhetoric  or  philosophy.  For  faith,  he  said, 
must  recognise  the  Supernatural  and  the  Invisible,  and 
he  who  attempts  to  see  and  understand  it  receives  only 
cares  and  tears  for  his  reward,   as  Melancthon  did  now. 

*  The  Lord  said  that  He  would  dwell  in  the  thick  darkness,' 

*  and  make  darkness  His  secret  place  '  (1  Kings  viii.  12 ; 
Psalm  xviii.  11).  *  He  who  wishes,  let  him  do  differently  ; 
had  Moses  wished  first  to  ''  understand  "  what  the  end  of 
Pharaoh's  army  would  be,  then  Israel  would  still  be  in  Egypt. 
May  the  Lord  increase  faith  in  you  and  all  of  us  ;  if  we  have 
that,  what  in  all  the  world  shall  the  devil  do  with  us  ? ' 

He  hastened  to  send  off  this  letter,  and  WTote  more  again 
on  the  same  subject  the  next  day,  June  30,  to  Jonas,  who 
had  informed  him  of  Melancthon's  afflictions  and  of  the 
fierce  hatred  of  their  Catholic  opponents ;  also  to  Spalatin, 
Agricola,  and  Brenz,  and  to  the  young  Duke  John  Frederick. 
He  sought  to  calm  the  latter  about  the  '  poisonous,  wicked 
talons '  of  his  nearest  blood-relations,  especially  the  Duke 
George.  He  entreated  all  those  theological  friends  to 
bring  a  wholesome  influence  to  bear  on  their  companion 
Melancthon,  and  for  each  of  them  he  had  particular  words 
of  affection.  Melancthon,  he  wrote,  must  be  dissuaded 
from  wishing  to  direct  the  world  and  thus  crucifying  him- 
self. The  news  that  '  the  princes  and  nations  rage  against 
the  Lord's  anointed,'  he  accepted  as  a  good  sign  ;  for  the 
Psalmist's  w^ords  that  immediately  follow  (Ps.  ii.  4)  were: 

*  He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  shall  laugh :  the  Lord  shall 
have  them  in  derision.'  He  did  not  understand  how  men 
could  be  troubled  since  God  still  lives  :  '  He  who  has  created 
me  will  be  father  to  my  son  and  husband  to  my  wife ;  He 


THE   DIET  OF  AUGSBURG.  415 

will  guide  the  community  and  be  preacher  to  the  congrega- 
tion better  than  I  can  myself.'  His  letter  to  Melancthon 
shows  in  an  interesting  manner  the  contrast  between  him- 
self and  his  friend  with  regard  to  cares  and  temptations. 
*  In  private  contests  which  concern  one's  own  self,  I  am  the 
weaker,  you  the  stronger  combatant ;  but  in  public  ones,  it 
is  just  the  reverse  (if,  indeed,  any  contest  can  be  called 
private  which  is  waged  between  me  and  Satan) ;  for  you 
take  but  small  account  of  your  life,  while  you  tremble  for 
the  public  cause ;  whereas  I  am  easy  and  hopeful  about  the 
latter,  knowing  as  I  do  for  certain  that  it  is  just  and  true, 
and  the  cause  of  God  Himself,  which  has  no  consciousness 
of  sin  to  make  it  blanch,  as  I  must  about  myself.  Hence, 
in  the  latter  case,  I  am  as  a  careless  spectator.'  Moreover 
he  felt  himself  just  now  less  visited  by  his  old  spiritual 
temptations,  although  the  devil  still  made  his  body  weary. 

How  Luther  used  to  converse  with  God  as  his  Father 
and  Friend,  Melancthon  learned  that  day  from  Dietrich. 
The  latter  heard  him  pray  aloud  :  '  I  know  that  Thou  art 
our  Father  and  our  God.  .  .  .  The  danger  is  Thine  as  well 
as  ours  ;  the  whole  cause  is  Thine,  we  have  put  our  hands 
to  it  because  we  were  obliged  to  ;  do  Thou  protect  it.' 
Luther  daily  devoted  at  least  three  hours  to  prayer.  He 
liked  all  his  family  to  do  the  same.  He  wrote  home  to  his 
wife  thus  :  '  Pray  with  confidence,  for  all  is  well  arranged, 
and  God  will  aid  us.'  Two  years  later  he  said  in  a  sermon 
about  the  fulfilment  of  prayer  :  '  I  have  tried  it,  and  many 
people  with  me,  especially  when  the  devil  wanted  to  devour 
us  at  the  Diet  at  Augsburg,  and  everything  looked  black, 
and  people  were  so  excited  that  everj^one  expected  things 
would  go  to  ruin,  as  some  had  defiantly  threatened,  and 
already  knives  were  drawn  and  guns  were  loaded ;  but  God, 
in  answer  to  our  prayers,  so  helped  us,  that  those  bawlers, 
with  their  clamour  and  menaces,  were  put  thoroughly  to 
shame,  and  a  favourable  peace  and  a  good  year  granted 
to  us.' 


4i6  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE  CHURCH. 

Just  about  this  time,  as  Jonas  announced  to  Luther, 
Duke  John  Frederick  had  the  arms  of  the  Eeformer  cut  in 
stone  for  a  signet  ring,  and  Luther  was  requested,  through 
his  friend  Spengler  of  Nuremberg,  to  explain  their  meaning. 
They  were  peculiarly  appropriate  to  the  times.  Luther, 
as  long  ago,  to  our  knowledge,  as  the  year  1517,  instead  of 
his  father's  arms,  which  were  a  crossbow  with  two  roses, 
had  taken  as  his  own  one  rose,  having  in  its  centre  a 
heart  with  a  cross  upon  it.  This,  he  now  explained, 
should  be  a  black  cross  on  a  red  heart ;  for,  in  order  to  be 
saved,  it  is  necessary  to  believe  with  our  whole  heart  in  our 
crucified  Lord,  and  the  cross,  though  bringing  pain  and 
self-mortification,  does  not  corrupt  the  nature,  but  rather 


Fig.  41. — Luther's  Seal.  Fig.  42. — Luther's  Coat  o?  Arms. 

(Taken  from  letters  written  in  1517.)  (From  old  prints.) 

keeps  the  heart  alive.  The  heart  should  be  placed  in  a  white 
rose,  to  show  that  faith  gives  joy,  comfort,  and  peace,  and 
because  white  is  the  colour  of  the  spirits  and  angels,  and 
the  joy  is  not  an  earthly  .joy.  The  rose  itself  should  be  set 
in  an  azure  field,  just  as  this  joy  is  already  the  beginning 
of  heavenly  joy  and  set  in  heavenly  hope,  and  outside, 
round  the  field,  there  should  be  a  golden  ring,  because 
heavenly  happiness  was  eternal  and  precious  above  all 
possessions. 

Shortly  after  this,  Luther  received  the  great  news  that 
the  summary  of  belief  of  German  Protestants,  or  Augsburg 
Confession,  had  been  submitted  on  June  25  to  the  Emperor 
and  the  Estates,  in  the  German  language.  The  Emperor, 
only  the  day  before,  had  been  anxious  that  it  should  not  be 
read  aloud,  but  only  received  in  writing.     Publicly,  and  in 


THE  DIET  OF  AUGSBURG.  417 

clear  and  solemn  tones,  the  Saxon  chancellor  read  the 
statement  of  that  evanpjelical  faith,  which,  only  nine  years 
before,  at  Worms,  Luther  had  been  required  to  retract. 
Luther  was  highly  rejoiced.  He  saw  fulfilled  the  words  of 
the  Psalmist,  '  I  will  speak  of  Thy  testimonies  also  before 
kings,'  and  he  felt  sure  that  the  remainder  of  the  verse, 
'and  will  not  be  ashamed'  (Ps.  cxix.  46),  would  likewise  be 
accomplished.  He  wrote  to  his  Elector,  saying  it  was,  for- 
sooth, a  clever  trick  of  their  enemies  to  seal  the  lips  of  the 
princes'  preachers  at  Augsburg.  The  consequence  was, 
that  the  Elector  and  the  other  nobles  '  now  preached  freely 
under  the  very  noses  of  his  Imperial  Majeaty  and  the  whole 
Empire,  who  were  obliged  to  hear  them,  and  could  not  offer 
any  opposition.'  How  sorry  he  felt  not  to  have  been  pre- 
sent there  himself  !  But  he  rejoiced  to  have  seen  the  day 
when  such  men  stood  up  in  such  an  assembly,  and  so 
bravely  bore  witness  to  the  truth  of  Christ. 

Tidings  also  now  arrived  of  a  certam  clemency  and  gene- 
rosity even  on  the  part  of  the  Emperor,  and  of  the  peaceful 
disposition  of  some  of  the  princes,  such  as  Duke  Henry  of 
Brunswick,  who  invited  Melancthon  to  dinner,  and  especially 
of  Cardinal  Albert,  the  Archbishop  and  Elector  of  Mayence. 
Luther,  unlike  Melancthon,  was  clear  and  certain  on  one 
point,  that  an  agreement  with  their  opponents  on  the 
questions  of  belief  and  religion  was  absolutely  out  of  the 
question.  But  he  now  spoke  out  his  opinion  most  decidedly 
as  to  a  '  political  agreement,'  in  spite  of  their  differences  of 
belief, — an  agreement,  in  other  words,  that  the  two  Con- 
fessions and  Churches  should  peacefully  exist  together  in 
the  German  Empire.  This  he  wished,  and  almost  hoped, 
might  come  to  pass.  In  the  Emperor  Charles  he  recog- 
nised— he,  the  loyal-minded  German— a  good  heart  and 
noble  blood,  w^orthy  of  all  honour  and  esteem.  He  did  not 
dare  to  hope  that  the  Emperor,  surrounded  as  he  was  by 
evil  advisers,  should  actually  favour  the  Evangelical  cause, 
but  he  believed  at  any  rate  so  far  in  his  clemency.     In 

E  E 


4i8  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

that  spii'it  he  once  more  by  letter  approached  the  Arch- 
bishop. Smce  there  was  no  hope,  he  wrote,  of  their  be- 
coming one  in  doctrine,  he  begged  him  at  least  to  use  his 
influence  that  peace  might  be  granted  to  the  Evangelicals. 
For  no  one  could  be,  or  dared  be,  forced  to  accept  a  belief, 
and  the  new  doctrine  did  no  harm,  but  taught  peace  and 
preserved  peace.  He  endeavoured  further  to  appeal  to  the 
Archbishop's  conscience  as  a  German.  '  We  Germans  do 
/liot  give  up  beheving  in  the  Pope  and  his  Italians  until  they 
bring  us,  not  into  a  bath  of  sweat,  but  a  bath  of  blood.  If 
German  princes  fell  upon  one  another,  that  would  make 
the  Pope,  the  httle  fruit  of  Florence,  happy ;  he  would 
laugh  in  his  sleeve  and  say  :  "  There,  you  German  beasts, 
Vjou  would  not  have  me  as  Pope,  so  have  that."  ...  I 
cannot  hold  my  hands  ;  I  must  strive  to  help  j)oor  Germany, 
miserable,  forsaken,  despised,  betrayed,  and  sold — to  whom 
indeed  I  wish  no  harm,  but  everything  that  is  good,  as  my 
duty  to  my  dear  Fatherland  commands  me.' 
^  Luther  then  would  not  only  not  hear  of  surrender,  but 
looked  upon  as  useless  any  further  negotiations  m  matters 
/of  belief.  He  could  not  understand  why  his  friends  were 
•detained  any  longer  at  Augsburg,  where  they  had  nothing 
to  expect  but  menace  and  bravado  on  the  part  of  their 
opponents.  On  July  15  he  wrote  to  them :  *  You  have 
rendered  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  and 
to  God  the  things  that  are  God's.  .  .  .  May  Christ  confess 
us,  as  you  have  confessed  Him.  .  .  .  Thus  I  absolve  you 
from  this  assembly  in  the  Name  of  the  Lord.  Now  go 
home  again—  go  home  ! ' 

But  they  had  still  to  wait  for  a  Eefutation,  which  the 
Emperor  caused  to  be  drawn  up  by  some  strict  Cathohc 
theologians,  among  whom  were  Eck,  the  old  and  ever  violent 
and  active  enemy  of  Luther,  and  John  Cochlseus,  originally  a 
champion  of  Humanism,  but  who  had,  since  the  beginning 
of  the  great  contest  in  the  Church,  distinguished  himself  by 
petty  but  bitter  polemics  against  Luther,  and  now  assisted 


THE  DIET  OF  AUGSBURG.  419 

Duke  George  in  the  place  of  the  deceased  Emser.  Mean- 
while the  spiritual  and  temporal  lords  caused  the  Protestants 
to  fear  the  worst.  For  Melancthon,  these  were  his  worst 
and  weakest  hours.  He  even  sought  to  pacify  the  Papal 
legate,  by  representing  that  there  was  no  dogma  in  which 
they  differed  from  the  Pioman  Church.  He  thought  it 
possible  that  even  large  concessions  might  be  made,  so  far 
at  least  as  regarded  the  rites  and  services  of  the  Church. 
For  these  were  external  things,  and  the  bishops  belonged  to 
the  authorities  whom  God  had  placed  over  the  externals  of 
Ufe. 

Luther  therefore  had  still  to  wait  with  patience.  He 
continued  his  encouraging  letters,  nor  did  even  menaces 
disturb  him.  He  remembered  that  too  sharp  an  edge 
gets  only  full  of  notches,  and  that,  as  he  had  already  been 
told  by  Staupitz,  God  first  shuts  the  eyes  of. those  He  wishes 
to  plague.  To  begin  a  war  now  would  be  dangerous  even  to 
their  enemies  ;  the  beginning  would  lead  to  no  progress,  the 
war  to  no  victory.  To  Melancthon  he  spoke,  using  a  coarse 
German  proverb,  about  a  man  who  *  died  of  threatening.' 

He  drew  his  richest  and  most  powerful  utterances  from 
his  one  highest  source,  the  Scriptures.  In  his  own  peculiar 
manner  he  expressed  himself  once  to  Brück,  the  chancellor 
of  the  Saxon  Elector,  his  temporal  adviser  at  Augsburg,  and 
a  man  who  did  much  to  further  the  Reformation.  '  I  have 
lately,'  he  wrote,  '  on  looking  out  of  the  window,  seen  two 
wonders  :  the  first,  the  glorious  vault  of  heaven,  with  the 
stars,  supported  by  no  pillar  and  yet  firmly  fixed  ;  the  second, 
'great  thick  clouds  hanging  over  us,  and  yet  no  ground  upon 
w^hich  they  rested,  or  vessel  in  which  they  were  contained  ; 
and  then,  after  they  had  greeted  us  with  a  gloomy  counte- 
nance and  passed  away,  came  the  luminous  rainbow,  which 
like  a  frail  thin  roof  nevertheless  bore  the  great  weight  of 
-water.'  If  anyone  amidst  the  present  troubles  was  not 
.  satisfied  with  the  power  of  faith,  Luther  would  compare  him 
to  a  man  who  should  seek  for  pillars  to  prevent  the  heavens 

E  E  2 


420  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

from  falling,  and  tremble  and  shake  because  he  could  not 
find  them.  He  was  willing,  as  he  wrote  in  this  letter,  to  rest 
content,  even  if  the  Emperor  would  not  grant  the  political 
peace  they  hoped  for ;  for  God's  thoughts  are  far  above  men's 
thoughts,  and  God,  and  not  the  Emperor,  must  have  the 
honour.  In  a  letter  to  Melancthon  he  explained  calmly  and 
clearly  the  duty  of  distinguishing  between  the  bishops  as 
temporal  princes  or  authorities,  and  the  bishops  as  spiritual 
shepherds,  and  how,  in  this  latter  capacity,  they  must  never 
be  allowed  the  right  of  burdening  Christ's  flock  with  arbi- 
trary rites  and  ordinances. 

He  now  published  a  series  of  small  tracts,  one  after  the 
other,  in  which,  with  inflexible  determination,  he  again 
asserted  the  evangelical  principles  against  Catholic  errors. 
In  this  spirit  he  wrote  about  the  Church  and  Church  au- 
thority ;  against  purgatory  ;  about  the  keys  of  the  Church, 
or  how  Christ  dispenses  real  forgiveness  of  sins  to  His 
community ;  against  the  worship  of  the  saints  ;  about  the 
right  celebration  of  the  Sacrament,  and  so  forth.  Regardless 
of  the  pending  questions  of  dispute,  his  thoughts  reverted 
likewise  to  the  needy  condition  of  the  schools  :  he  wrote  a 
special  tract,  '  On  the  duty  of  keeping  Children  at  school.' 
His  Commentary  on  the  118th  Psalm  w^as  now  followed  by 
one  upon  the  117th.  He  also  worked  indefatigably  at  the 
translation  of  the  Prophets.  Thus  steadily  he  persevered  in 
his  labours,  suffering  more  or  less  in  his  head,  always  weak 
and  *  capricious.'  At  the  conclusion  of  his  stay  at  Coburg 
he  told  a  friend  that,  on  account  of  the  '  buzzing  and  dizzi- 
ness '  in  his  head,  he  had  been  obliged,  with  all  his  regularitj^ 
of  habits,  to  make  a  holiday  of  more  than  half  the  summer. 

On  August  3  the  Catholic  Refutation  was  at  length  sub- 
mitted to  the  Diet.  It  showed  indeed,  as  did  the  imperial 
proclamation  convoking  the  Diet,  that  it  was  far  from  the 
Emperor's  intention  to  have  the  opinions  of  both  sides 
fairly  heard  and  judged  in  a  friendly  and  impartial  spirit : 
on  the  contrary,  he  demanded  that  the  Protestants  should 


THE   DIET  OE  AUGSBURG.  421 

declare  themselves  convinced  by  it,  and  therefore  con- 
quered. The  Landgrave  Philip  replied  to  this  demand 
by  quitting  Augsburg  on  August  6,  without  the  leave  and 
contrary  to  the  command  of  the  Emperor,  and  hastening 
home,  openly  resolved,  in  case  of  need,  to  meet  force  by 
force.  But  the  Emperor,  though  urged  by  Bome  to  take 
violent  measures,  was  not  prepared,  as  indeod  Luther  had 
guessed,  for  such  a  sudden  stroke.  He  preferred  to  adopt 
a  more  peaceful  and  mediating  course,  and  to  attempt 
once  more  to  settle  the  differences  by  a  mixed  commission 
of  fourteen,  and  afterwards  by  a  new  and  smaller  committee, 
m  which  Melancthon  alone  represented  the  Evangelical 
theologians. 

The  Protestants  had  now  to  consider  seriously  the 
question  of  a  possible  submission  which  Melancthon  had 
hitherto  been  anxiously  pondering  with  himself.  Luther's 
view  of  the  entire  standpoint  and  interests  of  the  Eomish 
Church  was  now  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  her  representa- 
tives attached  less  importance  to  the  more  profound  differ- 
ences of  doctrine  in  regard  to  the  inward  means  of  salvation, 
than  to  the  restoration  of  episcopal  rights  and  forms  of 
worship,  such  as,  in  particular,  the  mass  and  the  Sacrament 
in  both  kinds,  which  formed  the  principal  difficulties  during 
the  negotiations.  On  the  other  hand,  no  one  had  taught 
more  cleai'ly  than  Luther  the  freedom  w4iich  belongs  to 
Christians  in  outw^ard  forms  of  constitution  and  w'orship, 
and  which  enables  them  to  yield  to  and  serve  each  other  on 
these  very  points.  But  he  had  none  the  less  earnestly  cau- 
tioned against  making  concessions  to  ecclesiastical  tyrants, 
who  might  make  use  of  them  to  enslave  and  mislead  souls. 
In  this  respect  Melancthon  now  showed  himself  entirely 
resolved.  He  longed  for  a  restoration  of  the  Catholic 
episcopacy  for  the  Evangelicals,  not  only  for  the  sake  of 
peace,  but  because  he  despaired  of  securing  otherwise  a 
genuine  regulation  of  the  Churcli  in  the  face  of  arbitrary 
princes  and  undisciplined    multitudes.      In  fact  the  Pro- 


422  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 

testants  on  this  commission  were  willing  to  promise  lawful 
obedience  to  the  bishops,  if  only  the  questions  of  service 
and  doctrine  were  left  to  a  free  Council.  As  regarded  the 
service  of  the  mass  the  point  at  issue  was  whether  the 
Protestants  could  not  and  ought  not  to  accept  it  with  its 
whole  act  of  priestly  sacrifice,  if  only  an  explanation  were 
added  as  to  the  difference  between  this  sacrifice  and  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ  upon  the  Cross.  Other  Protestants,  on 
the  contrary,  especially  the  representatives  of  Nuremberg, 
became  suspicious  and  angry  at  such  a  way  of  settling 
matters,  and  especially  at  the  behaviour  of  Melancthon. 
Spengler  at  Nuremberg  wrote  accordingly  to  Luther.  The 
situation  was  all  the  more  critical,  since  the  negotiations, 
according  to  the  wish  of  the  Emperor,  were  to  proceed 
uninterruptedly,  and  there  was  no  time  to  obtain  an  opinion 
from  Coburg. 

Luther  now,  to  whom  the  Elector  submitted  the  Articles 
which  were  to  bring  about  an  agreement,  sent  a  very  calm, 
clear  answer,  entering  into  all  the  particulars.  He  gave  a 
purely  practical  judgment,  though  restmg  upon  the  highest 
principles.  Thus,  with  regard  to  the  mass,  he  says  that 
the  Catholic  liturgy  contained  the  inadmissible  idea  that 
we  must  pray  to  God  to  accept  the  Body  of  His  Son  as 
a  sacrifice ;  if  this  were  to  be  explained  in  a  gloss,  either 
the  words  of  the  liturgy  would  have  to  be  falsified  by  the 
gloss,  or  the  gloss  by  the  words  of  the  liturgy.  It  would 
be  wrong  and  foolish  to  run  into  danger  unnecessarily 
about  so  troublesome  a  word.  He  warned  Melancthon 
especially  against  the  power  of  the  bishops.  He  knew  well 
that  obedience  to  them  meant  a  restriction  of  the  freedom 
of  the  gospel ;  but  the  bishops  would  not  consider  them- 
selves equally  bound,  and  would  declare  it  a  breach  of  faith 
if  everything  that  they  wished  were  not  observed.  He 
then  quietly  expressed  his  conviction  that  the  whole 
attempt  at  negotiation  was  a  vain  delusion.  It  was 
wished  to  make  the  Pope  and  Luther  agree  together,  but 


THE  DIET  OF  AUGSBURG.  423 

the  Pope  was  unwilling  and  Luther  begged  to  be  excused,  j 
Fu-mly  and  calmly  he  relied  on  the  consciousness,  whatever 
happened,  of  his  own  independence  and  strength.  Thus 
he  wrote  to  Spangler :  '  I  have  commended  the  matter  to 
God,  and  I  think  also  I  have  kept  it  so  well  in  hand 
that  nobody  can  find  me  defenceless  on  any  point  so  long 
as  Christ  and  I  are  united.'  To  Spalatin  he  wrote  :  '  Free 
is  Luther,  and  free  also  is  the  Macedonian  (Philip  of  Hesse). 
.  .  .  Only  be  brave  and  behave  like  men ! '  We  have 
taken  this  from  letters  rich  in  similar  thoughts,  addressed 
by  Luther  on  August  26  to  the  Elector  John,  Melancthon, 
Spalatin,  and  Jonas,  and  from  other  letters  written  two 
days  after  to  the  three  last-named  friends  and  to  Spengler. 
He  likewise  wrote  for  Brenz  on  the  26th  a  preface  to  his 
Exposition  of  the  Prophet  Amos.  This  preface  shows  us 
how  Luther  himself  judged  his  own  words  which  he  sent 
forth  with  such  power.  His  own  speech,  he  says,  is  a  wild 
wood,  compared  with  the  clear,  pure  flow  of  Brenz's  lan- 
guage ;  it  was,  to  compare  small  things  with  great,  as  if  his 
was  the  strong  spirit  of  Elijah,  the  wind  tearing  up  the 
rocks,  and  the  earthquake  and  fire,  whereas  Brenz's  was  the 
*  still,  small  voice.'  Yet  God  needs  also  rough  wedges  for 
rough  logs,  and  together  with  the  fruitful  rain  He  sends 
the  storm  of  thunder  and  lightning  to  purify  the  air. 

If,  however.  Protestantism  was  then  threatened  by 
danger  from  mistaken  concessions,  the  danger  was  soon 
averted  by  the  demands  of  its  opponents,  who  went  too  far 
even  for  a  Melancthon.  The  proceedings  of  the  smaller 
committee  had  likewise  to  be  closed  without  any  result. 
On  September  8  Luther  was  able  at  last  to  tell  his  wife 
that  he  hoped  soon  to  return  home ;  to  his  little  Hans  he 
promised  to  bring  a  '  beautiful  large  book  of  sugar,'  which 
his  cousin  Cyriac,  who  had  travelled  with  Luther  to  Augsburg 
and  Nuremberg,  had  brought  for  him  out  of  that  '  beautiful 
garden.'  On  the  14th  he  received  a  visit  from  Duke  John 
Frederick  and  Count  Albert  of  Mansfeld  upon  their  return 


424    '         RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 

from  the  Diet.  The  former  brought  him  the  signet  ring, 
which,  however,  was  too  large  even  for  his  thumb ;  he  re- 
marked that  lead,  not  gold,  was  fitting  for  him.  He  only 
wished  he  could  see  his  other  friends  also  escaped  from 
Augsburg;  and  although  the  Duke  was  ready  to  take  him 
away  with  him,  he  preferred  to  remain  behind  at  Coburg, 
in  order,  as  he  wrote  to  Melancthon,  to  receive  them  there 
and  wipe  off  their  perspiration  after  their  hot  bath. 

At  Augsburg  negotiations  were  re-opened  with  Melanc- 
thon and  Brück  ;  the  Nuremberg  deputy  even  thought  it 
necessary  to  complain  in  the  strongest  terms  of  an  *  under- 
hand unchristian  stratagem '  against  which  Melancthon 
would  no  longer  listen  to  a  word  of  remonstrance ;  and 
Luther,  who  heard  of  these  complaints  through  Spengler 
and  Link,  expressed  indeed  his  full  confidence  to  his  Saxon 
theologians,  and  was  particularly  anxious  not  to  wound 
Melancthon,  but  earnestly  and  pressingly  begged  him  and 
Jonas,  on  the  20th  of  the  month,  to  inform  him  about  the 
matter,  to  be  on  their  guard  against  the  crafty  attacks  of 
their  enemies,  and  to  renounce  finally  all  idea  of  a  com- 
promise. While,  however,  these  letters  were  on  their  way 
past  Nuremberg  through  Spengler's  hands,  it  was  already 
known  there  that  the  new  attempt,  especially  that  against 
the  constancy  of  Jonas  and  Spalatin,  had  shipwrecked, 
and  Spengler  consequently  did  not  forward  them  to  their 
address.  The  Evangelical  States  adhered  to  their  Protest 
of  1529  and  to  the  Imperial  Lecess  of  1526. 

The  Emperor  made  known  his  displeasure  at  this  result, 
but  found  that  even  those  princes  who  were  most  zealous 
against  the  innovations,  were  not  equally  zealous  to  plunge 
into  at  least  a  doubtful  war  f-r  the  extirpation  of  heresy,  and 
the  aggrandisement,  moreover,  of  the  Emperor's  authority 
and  power,  and  accordingly  he  resolved  to  put  off  the  de- 
cision. On  the  22nd  he  announced  a  Eecess,  which  gave 
the  Protestants,  whose  Confession,  it  was  stated,  had  been 
publicly  heard  and  refuted,  time  till  the  15th  of  the  fol- 


THE  DIET  OF  AUGSBURG.  425 

lowing  April  for  consideration  whether,  in  the  matter  of 
the  articles  in  dispute,  they  would  return  to  unity  with  the 
Church,  Pope,  and  Empire.  The  Emperor,  meanwliile, 
engaged  to  bring  about  the  meeting  of  a  Council  within  a 
year,  for  the  removal  of  real  ecclesiastical  grievances,  but 
reserved  until  that  period  the  consideration  of  what  further 
steps  should  eventually  be  taken.  The  Evangelicals  pro- 
tested that  their  Confession  had  never  been  refuted,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  lay  before  the  Emperor  an  apology  for  it,  drawn  up 
by  Melancthon.  They  accepted  the  time  offered  for  considera- 
tion. So  far  then  the  promise  was  given  of  the  political 
peace  which  Luther  had  wished  and  hoped  for.  Eeferring 
to  the  other  dangers  and  menaces  before  them,  he  said  to 
Spengler  :  *  We  are  cleared  and  have  done  enough ;  the 
blood  be  upon  their  own  head.' 

Yet  another  attempt  at  union  came  to  Luther  at  Coburg 
from  quite  a  different  quarter.  Strasburg,  and  three  other 
South  German  towns,  Constance,  Memmingen,  and  Lindau, 
differing  as  they  did  from  the  Lutherans  in  the  Sacramental 
controversy,  had  laid  before  the  Diet  a  Confession  of  their 
own— the  so-called  Tetrapolitana.  They  too,  like  Zwingli, 
refused  to  recognise  any  partaking  of  the  Body  of  Christ 
by  the  mouth  and  body  of  the  receiver,  but  at  the  same 
time,  unlike  him,  they  based  their  whole  view  of  the 
Eucharist  on  the  assumption  of  a  real  Divine  gift  and  a 
spiritual  enjoyment  of  the  '  real  Body  '  of  Christ.  On  the 
strength  of  this  view%  Butzer,  the  theological  representative 
of  Strasburg,  sought  to  make  further  overtures  to  the 
Wittenbergers.  He  was  not  deterred  by  Melancthon's  mis- 
trustful opposition  or  by  Luther's  leaving  a  letter  of  his  un- 
answered. He  now  appeared  in  person  at  the  Castle  of 
Coburg,  and  on  September  25  had  a  confidential  and 
friendly  interview  with  Luther.  The  latter  still  refused 
to  content  himself  with  a  mere  '  spiritual  partaking,'  and, 
though  demanding  above  all  things  entire  frankness,  did  not 
himself  conceal  a  constant  suspicion.    However,  he  himself 


426  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

began  to  hope  for  good  results,  and  assured  Butzer  he 
would  willingly  sacrifice  his  life  three  times  over,  if  thereby 
this  division  might  be  put  an  end  to.  This  fortunate  be- 
ginning encouraged  Butzer  to  further  attempts,  which  he 
made  afterwards  in  private. 

The  day  after  the  reading  of  the  Eecess,  the  Elector 
John  was  able  at  length  to  leave  the  Diet  and  set  forward  on 
his  journey  home.  The  Emperor  took  leave  of  him  with 
these  words :  '  Uncle,  Uncle,  I  did  not  look  for  this  from 
you.'  The  Elector,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  went  away  in 
silence.  After  staying  a  short  time  at  Nuremberg,  he  paid 
a  visit,  with  his  theologians,  to  Luther.  They  left  Coburg 
together  on  October  5,  and  travelled  by  Altcnburg,  where 
Luther  preached  on  Sunday,  the  9th,  to  the  royal  residence 
at  Torgau.  After  Luther  had  also  preached  here  on  the 
following  Sunday,  he  returned  to  his  home. 


UNIVERSITY^^ 

CHAPTER  VI. 

FROM     THE     DIET    OF    AUGSBURG    TO    THE    RELIGIOUS     PEACE    OF 
NUREMBERG,    1632.       DEATH    OF    THE    ELECTOR    JOHN. 

No  sooner  had  Luther  resumed  his  official  duties  at  Witten- 
berg, than  he  again  undertook  extra  and  very  arduous  work. 
Bugenhagen  went  in  October  to  Lübeck,  as  he  had  pre- 
viously gone  to  Brunswick  and  Hamburg.  The  most  im- 
portant advance  made  by  the  Reformation  during  those 
years  when  its  champions  had  to  fight  so  stoutly  at  the 
Diets  for  then-  rights,  was  in  the  North  German  cities. 
Luther,  soon  after  his  arrival  at  Coburg,  had  received  news 
that  Lübeck  and  Lüneburg  had  accepted  the  Reformation. 
The  citizens  of  Lübeck  refused  to  allow  any  but  Evangelical 
preachers,  and  abolished  all  non-evangelical  usages,  though 
an  opposition  party  appealed  to  the  Emperor,  and  actually 
induced  him  to  issue  a  mandate  prohibiting  the  innovations. 
To  organise  the  new  Church,  the  Lübeckers  would  have 
preferred  the  assistance  of  Luther  himself;  but  failing 
him,  their  delegates  begged  the  Elector  John,  when  at 
Augsburg,  to  send  them  at  least  Bugenhagen.  Under  these 
circumstances  Luther  agreed  that  Bugenhagen  should  be 
allowed  to  go,  although  the  Wittenberg  congregation  and 
university  could  hardly  spare  him.  His  friend  was  wanted 
at  Wittenberg,  said  Luther,  all  the  more  because  he  him- 
self could  not  be  of  any  use  much  longer ;  for  what  with 
his  failing  years  and  his  bad  health,  so  weary  was  he  of 
life  that  this  accursed  world  would  soon  have  seen  and 
suffered  the  last  of  him. 

Nevertheless,  he  again  undertook  at  once,  so  far  as  his 


428  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

health  permitted,  the  official  duties  of  the  town  pastor,  who 
this  time  was  absent  from  Wittenberg  for  a  year  and  a  half, 
until  April  1532 ;  Luther,  accordingly,  not  only  preached 
the  weekly  sermons  on  Wednesdays  and  Saturdays,  on  the 
Gospels  of  St.  Matthew  and  St.  John,  but  attended  con- 
tinuously to  the  care  of  souls  and  the  ordinary  business  of 
his  office.  He  w^ould  reproach  himself  with  the  fact  that 
under  his  administration  the  poor-box  of  the  church  was 
neglected,  and  that  he  was  often  too  tired  and  too  lazy  to 
do  anything.  The  pains  in  his  head,  the  giddiness,  and  the 
affections  of  his  heart  now  recurred,  and  grew  worse  in 
March  and  June  1531,  while  the  next  year  they  developed 
symptoms  of  the  utmost  gravity  and  alarm. 

All  this  time  he  worked  with  indefatigable  industry  to 
finish  his  translation  of  the  Prophets ;  in  the  autumn  of 
1531  he  told  Spalatin  that  he  devoted  two  hours  daily  to 
the  task  of  correction.  He  brought  out  a  new  and  revised 
edition  of  the  Psalms,  and  published  some  of  them  with  a 
practical  exposition. 

In  addition  to  these  literary  labours,  which  ever  re- 
mained his  first  delight,  Luther's  chief  task  was  to  advise 
his  Elector  upon  the  salient  questions,  transactions,  and 
dangers  of  Church  politics,  which,  with  the  Eecess  of  the 
Diet  and  the  period  thereby  allotted  for  their  consideration, 
had  become  matters  of  real  urgency.  And,  in  fact,  it  was 
to  his  valuable  and  conscientious  advice  that  the  Protestants 
in  general  throughout  the  Empire  looked  for  guidance. 

On  November  19  the  Eecess  of  the  Diet,  passed  in  de- 
fiance of  the  Protestants,  was  published  at  Augsburg.  They 
accepted  the  time  allowed  them  for  consideration,  but  the 
Emperor  and  the  Empire  insisted  on  maintaining  the 
old  ordinances  of  the  Church,  and  the  Protestants  were 
now  required  to  surrender  the  ecclesiastical  and  monastic 
property  in  then'  hands.  The  latter  observed,  moreover, 
that  the  Eecess  contained  no  actual  promise  of  peace  on 
the  part  of  the  Emperor,  but  that  the  States  only  were 


TO    THE  RELIGIOUS  PEACE   OF  NUREMBERG,    429 

commanded  to  keep  peace.  In  fact,  the  Emperor  had 
ah-eady  promised  the  Pope  on  October  4  to  employ  all  his 
force  to  suppress  the  Protestants.  He  immediately  sub- 
jected the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Emj)ire— the  so-called 
Imperial  Chamber — to  a  visitation,  and  instructed  it  to 
enforce  strictly  the  contents  of  the  Recess  in  ecclesiastical 
and  religious  matters.  Thus  the  campaign  against  the 
Protestants  was  to  begin  with  the  institution  of  processes 
at  law,  with  reference  particularly  to  the  question  of  Church 
property.  Furthermore,  to  secure  the  authority  and  continue 
the  policy  of  the  Emperor  during  his  absence,  his  brother 
Ferdinand  was  to  be  elected  King  of  the  Romans.  John 
of  Saxony,  the  only  Protestant  among  the  Electors,  opposed 
the  election.  He  appealed  to  the  fact  that  the  nomination 
was  a  direct  violation  of  a  decision  of  imperial  law,  the 
Golden  Bull,  which  declared  that  the  proposal  for  such  an 
election,  during  the  lifetime  of  the  Emperor,  must  first  be 
unanimously  resolved  on  by  the  Electors.  The  Emperor 
had  a  Papal  brief  in  his  hands  which  empowered  him  to  ex- 
clude John,  as  a  heretic,  from  electing,  but  he  did  not  find 
it  prudent  to  make  use  of  it.  The  election  actually  took 
place  on  January  5,  1531. 

The  Protestants  now  sought  for  protection  in  a  firm, 
well-organised  union  among  themselves.  They  assembled 
for  this  purpose  at  Schmalkald  at  Christmas  1530. 

The  more  imminent,  however,  the  danger  to  be  en- 
countered, the  more  necessary  it  became  to  determine  the 
question  whether  it  was  lawful  to  resist  the  Emperor.  The 
jurists  who  advised  in  favour  of  resistance,  adduced  certain 
arguments,  without,  however,  stating  any  very  clear  or 
forcible  reasons  of  law.  They  quoted  principles  of  civil 
law,  to  show  that  a  judge,  whose  sentence  is  aj^pealed  against 
to  a  higher  court,  has  no  right  to  execute  it  by  force,  and 
that  if  he  does  so,  resistance  may  lawfully  be  offered  him ; 
and  they  proceeded  to  apply  this  analogy  to  the  appeal  of 
the  Protestants  to  a  future  Council,  and  the  action  taken 


430  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH, 

against  them,  while  their  appeal  was  still  pending,  by  the 
Emperor.  They  were  nearer  the  mark  when  they  argued 
that,  according  to  the  constitution  of  the  Empire  and  the 
imperial  laws  themselves,  the  sovereignty  of  the  Emperor 
was  in  no  sense  unlimited  or  incapable  of  being  resisted ; 
but  then  the  difficulty  here  was,  that  the  right  of  individual 
States  to  oppose  decrees,  passed  at  a  regular  Diet  by  the 
Emperor  and  the  majority  of  the  members  present,  was 
not  yet  proved.  There  was  a  general  want  of  clearness  and 
precision  connected  with  the  theories  then  being  developed 
of  the  relations  of  the  different  States  and  the  interpretation 
of  their  rights.  Upon  this  matter,  then,  Luther  was  called 
on  again,  with  the  other  Wittenberg  theologians,  to  give 
an  opinion.  The  jurists  also,  especially  the  chancellor 
Brück,  were  associated  with  them  in  their  deliberations. 

On  the  question  about  Ferdinand's  election  as  King  of 
Kome,  Luther  strongly  advised  his  Elector  to  give  way. 
The  danger  which,  in  the  event  of  his  refusal,  menaced 
both  himself  and  the  whole  of  Germany  appeared  to  Luther 
far  too  serious  to  justify  it.  The  occasion  would  be  used  to 
deprive  him  of  the  Electorship,  and  perhaps  give  it  to  Duke 
George ;  and  Germany  would  be  rent  asunder  and  plunged 
into  war  and  misery.  This,  said  Luther,  was  his  advice  ; 
adding,  however,  that  as  he  held  such  a  humble  position 
in  the  world,  he  did  not  understand  to  give  much  advice 
in  such  important  matters,  nay,  he  was  '  too  much  like  a 
child  in  these  worldly  affairs.' 

But  a  change  had  now  come  in  his  views  about  the 
right  of  resistance ;  a  change  which,  though  in  reality  but 
an  advance  upon  his  earlier  principles,  led  to  an  opposite 
result.  He  taught  that  civil  authorities  and  their  ordinances 
were  distinctly  of  God,  and  by  these  ordinances  he  under- 
stood, according  to  the  Apostle's  words,  the  different  laws 
of  different  States,  so  far  as  they  had  anywhere  acquired 
stability.  With  regard  to  Germany,  as  we  have  seen,  his 
good  monarchical  principles  did  not  as  yet  prevent  his  hold' 


TO    THE   RELIGIOUS  PEACE   OE  NUREMBERG.     43' 

ing  the  opinion  that  the  collective  hocly  of  the  princes  of  the 
Empire  could  dethrone  an  unworthy  Emperor.  The  deter- 
mining qui'^tion  with  him  now  was  what  the  law  of  the 
Empire  or  the  edict  of  the  Emperor  himself  would  de- 
cide, in  the  event  of  resistance  heing  offered  by  individual 
States  of  the  Empire,  which  found  themselves  and  their 
subjects  injured  in  their  rights  and  impeded  in  the  fulfil- 
ment of  their  duties.  The  answer  to  this,  however,  he 
conceived  to  be  a  matter  no  longer  for  theologians,  but  for 
men  versed  in  the  law,  and  for  politicians.  Theologians 
could  only  tell  him  that  though,  indeed,  a  Christian,  simply 
as  a  Christian,  must  willingly  suffer  wrong,  yet  the  secular 
authorities,  and  therefore  every  German  prince  having 
authority,  were  bound  to  uphold  their  office  given  them  by 
God,  and  protect  their  subjects  from  wrong.  As  to  what 
were  the  established  ordinances  and  laws  of  each  individual 
State,  that  was  a  matter  for  jurists  to  decide,  and  for  the 
princes  to  seek  their  counsel.  Accordingly,  the  Wittenberg 
theologians  declared  as  their  opinion  that  if  those  versed 
in  the  law  could  prove  that  in  certain  cases,  according  to 
the  law  of  the  Empire,  the  supreme  authority  could  be 
resisted,  and  that  the  present  case  was  one  of  that  descrip- 
tion, not  even  theologians  could  controvert  them  from 
Scripture.  In  condemning  previously  all  resistance,  they 
said,  they  '  had  not  know^n  that  the  sovereign  power  itself 
was  subject  to  the  law.'  The  net  result  was  that  the  allies 
really  considered  themselves  justified  in  offering  resistance 
to  the  Emperor,  and  prepared  to  do  so.  The  responsibility, 
as  Luther  warned  them,  must  rest  with  the  princes  and 
politicians,  inasmuch  as  it  was  their  duty  to  see  that  they 
had  right  on  their  side.  '  That  is  a  question,'  he  said, 
'  w^hich  w^e  neither  know  nor  assert :  I  leave  them  to  act.' 

Luther  gave  open  vent  to  his  indignation  at  the  Recess 
of  the  Diet  and  the  violent  attacks  of  the  Catholics  in  two 
publications,  early  in  1531,  one  entitled  *  Gloss  on  the  sup- 
posed Edict  of  the  Emperor,'  and  the  other,  '  Warning  to 


432  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

his  beloved  Germans.'  In  the  former  he  reviewed  the 
contents  of  the  Edict  and  the  calumnies  it  heaped  upon  the 
Evangelical  doctrines,  not  intending,  as  he  said,  to  attack  his 
Imperial  Majesty,  but  only  the  traitors  and  villains,  be  they 
princes  or  bishops,  who  sought  to  work  their  own  wicked  will, 
and  chief  of  all  the  arch-rogue,  the  so-called  Vicegerent  of 
God,  and  his  legates.  The  other  treatise  contemplates  the 
*  very  worst  evil '  of  all  that  then  threatened  them,  namely, 
a  war  resulting  from  the  coercive  measures  of  the  Emperor 
and  the  resistance  of  the  Protestants.  As  a  spiritual  pastor 
and  preacher  he  wished  to  counsel  not  war,  but  peace,  as  all 
the  world  must  testify  he  had  always  been  the  most  diligent 
in  doing.  But  he  now  openly  declared  that  if,  which  God 
forbid,  it  came  to  war,  he  would  not  have  those  who  defended 
themselves  against  the  bloodthirsty  Papists  censured  as 
rebellious,  but  would  have  it  called  an  act  of  necessary  de- 
fence, and  justify  it  by  referring  to  the  law  and  the  lawyers. 

These  publications  occasioned  fresh  dealings  with  Duke 
George,  who  again  complained  to  the  Elector  about  them, 
and  also  about  certain  letters  falsely  ascribed  to  Luther,  and 
then  published  a  reply,  under  an  assumed  name,  to  his  first 
pamphlet.  Luther  answered  this  '  libel '  with  a  tract  en- 
titled '  Against  the  Assassin  at  Dresden,'  not  intended,  as 
many  have  supposed,  to  impute  murderous  designs  to  the 
Duke,  but  referring  to  the  calumnies  and  anonymous  attacks 
in  his  book.  The  tone  employed  by  Luther  in  this  tract 
reminds  us  of  his  saying  that  '  a  rough  wedge  is  wanted 
for  a  rough  log.'  It  brought  down  upon  him  a  fresh  ad- 
monition from  his  prince,  in  reply  to  which  he  simply  begged 
that  George  might  for  the  future  leave  him  in  peace. 

The  imminence  of  the  common  danger  favoured  the  at- 
tempts of  the  South  German  States  to  effect  an  agreement 
with  the  German  Protestants,  and  the  efforts  of  Butzer  in 
that  direction.  Luther  himself  acknowledged  in  a  letter  to 
Butzer,  how  very  necessary  a  union  with  them  was,  and 
what  a  scandal  was  caused  to  the  gospel  by  their  rupture 


TO    THE   RELIGIOUS  PEACE   OF  NUREMBERG.  433 

hitherto,  nay,  that  if  only  they  were  united,  the  Papacy,  the 
Turks,  the  whole  world,  and  the  very  gates  of  hell  would 
never  be  able  to  work  the  gospel  harm.  Nevertheless,  his 
conscience  forbade  him  to  overlook  the  existing  differences 
of  doctrine  ;  nor  could  he  imagine  why  his  former  opponents, 
if  they  now  acknowledged  the  Real  Presence  of  the  Body  at 
the  Sacrament,  could  not  plainly  admit  that  presence  for 
Uhe  mouth  and  body  of  all  partakers,  whether  worthy  or 
unworthy.  He  deemed  it  sufficient  at  present,  that  each 
party  should  desist  from  writing  against  the  other,  and  wait 
until  'perhaps  God,  if  they  ceased  from  strife,  should 
vouchsafe  further  grace.'  The  new  explanations,  however, 
were  enough  to  make  the  Schmalkaldic  allies  abandon  their 
scruples  to  admitting  the  South  Germans,  and  they  were 
accordingly  received  into  the  league. 

Thus  then,  at  the  end  of  March  1531,  a  mutual  de- 
fensive alliance  for  six  years  of  the  members  of  the  Schmal- 
kaldic League  was  concluded  between  the  Elector  John,  the 
Landgrave  Philip,  three  Dukes  of  Brunswick  Lüneburg, 
Prince  Wolfgang  of  Anhalt,  Counts  Albert  and  Gebhard  of 
Mansfeld,  the  North  German  towns  of  Magdeburg,  Bremen, 
and  Lübeck,  and  the  South  German  towns  of  Strasburg, 
Constance,  Memmingen,  and  Lindau,  and  also  Ulm,  Reut- 
lingen, Bibrach,  and  Isny.  Even  Luther  no  longer  raised 
aiay  objections. 

By  this  alliance  the  Protestants  presented  a  firm  and 
powerful  front  among  the  constituent  portions  of  the 
German  Empire.  Their  adversaries  were  not  so  agreed 
in  their  interests.  Between  the  Dukes  of  Bavaria,  and 
between  the  Emperor  and  Ferdinand,  political  jealousy 
prevailed  to  an  extent  sufiicient  to  induce  the  former  to 
combine  with  the  heretics  against  the  newly-elected  King. 
Outside  Germany,  Denmark  reached  the  hand  of  fellowship 
to  the  Schmalkaldic  League ;  for  the  exiled  King  of  Denmark, 
Christian  XL,  who  had  previously  turned  to  the  Saxon 
Elector  and  been  friendly   to   Luther,  now  sought,    after 

F  F 


434  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

returning  in  all  humility  to  the  orthodox  Church,  to  regain 
his  lost  sovereignty  with  the  help  of  his  brother-in-law,  the 
Emperor.  The  King  of  France  also  was  equally  ready  to 
make  common  cause  with  the  Protestant  German  princes 
against  tne  growing  power  of  Charles  V. 

As  for  Luther,  we  find  no  notice  on  his  part  of  the 
schemes  and  negotiations  connected  with  these  political 
events,  much  less  any  active  participation  in  them.  There 
was  just  then  a  rupture  pending  between  Henry  VIII.  of 
England  and  the  Emperor,  and  the  former  was  preparmg  to 
secede  from  the  Church  of  Eome.  Henry  was  anxious  for  a 
divorce  from  his  wife  Katharme  of  Arragon,  an  aunt  of  the 
Emperor,  on  the  ground  of  her  previous  marriage  with  his 
deceased  brother,  which,  as  he  aheged,  made  his  own  mar- 
riage with  her  illegal ;  and  since  the  Pope,  in  spite  of  long 
negotiations,  refused,  out  of  regard  for  the  Emperor,  to  ac- 
cede to  his  request,  Henry  had  an  opinion  prepared  by  a 
number  of  European  universities  and  men  of  learning,  on 
the  legality  and  validity  of  his  marriage,  which  in  fact  for 
the  most  part  declared  against  it.  A  secret  commissioner 
of  the  former  '  Protector  of  the  Faith '  was  then  sent  to  the 
Wittenbergers,  and  to  Luther,  whom  he  had  so  grossly 
insulted.  Luther,  however,  pronounced  (Sept.  5,  1531) 
against  the  divorce,  on  the  ground  that  the  marriage,  though 
not  contrary  to  the  law  of  God  as  set  forth  m  Scripture, 
was  prohibited  by  the  human  law  of  the  Church.  The  poh- 
tical  side  of  the  question  he  disregarded  altogether.  He 
expressed  himself  to  Spalatin,  in  a  certain  tone  of  sadness, 
about  the  Pope's  evil  disposition  towards  the  Emperor,  the 
intrigues  he  seemed  to  be  promoting  against  him  in  France, 
and  the  animosity  of  Henry  VIII.  towards  him  on  account 
of  his  decision  on  the  marriage ;  and  added,  '  Such  is  the 
way  of  this  wicked  world;  may  God  take  our  Emperor 
under  His  protection  !  ' 

With  Charles  V.  and  Ferdinand  the  question  of  peace  or 
war  was,  of  necessity,  largely  governed  by  the  menacing 


TO    THE  RELIGIOUS  PEACE   OE  NUREMBERG.  435 

attitude  of  the  Turks ;  in  fact  it  determined  their  policy  in 
the  matter.  Luther  kept  this  danger  steadily  in  view  ;  after 
the  publication  of  the  Recess  he  promised  the  wrath  of  God 
upon  those  madmen  who  would  enter  upon  a  war  while  they 
had  the  Turks  before  their  very  eyes.  Ferdinand  in  vain 
sought  to  conclude  a  treaty  of  peace  with  the  Sultan,  who 
demanded  him  to  surrender  all  the  fortresses  he  still 
possessed  in  a  part  of  Hungary,  and  reserved  the  right  of 
making  further  conquests.  He  was  even  induced,  in  March 
1531,  to  advise  his  brother  to  effect  a  peaceful  arrange- 
ment with  the  Protestants,  in  order  to  ensure  their  assistance 
in  arms.  Attempts  at  reconciliation  were  accordingly 
made  through  the  intervention  of  the  Electors  of  the  Palati- 
nate and  Mayence.  The  term  allowed  by  the  Diet  (April  15) 
passed  by  unnoticed.  The  Emperor  also  directed  the  '  sus- 
pension of  the  proceedings,  which  he  had  been  authorised 
by  the  Kecess  of  Augsburg  to  set  on  foot  in  religious  matters, 
till  the  approaching  Diet.' 

The  negotiations  were  languidly  protracted  through  the 
summer,  without  effecting  any  definite  result.  An  opinion, 
drawn  up  jointly  by  Luther,  Melancthon,  and  Bugenhagen, 
advised  against  an  absolute  rejection  of  the  proposed 
restoration  of  episcopal  power;  the  only  thing  necessary 
to  insist  upon  being  that  the  clergy  and  congregations 
should  be  allowed  by  the  bishops  the  pure  preaching  of  the 
gospel  which  had  hitherto  been  refused  them. 

About  this  time  Luther  had  the  grief  of  losing  his 
mother.  She  died  on  June  80,  after  receiving  from  her  son 
a  consolatory  letter  in  her  last  illness.  Of  his  own  physical 
suffering  in  this  month  wt  have  already  spoken.  On  the 
26th,  he  wrote  to  Link  that  Satan  had  sent  all  his  mes- 
sengers to  buffet  him  (2  Cor.  xii.  7),  so  that  he  could  only 
rarely  write  or  do  anything :  the  devil  would  probably  soon 
kill  him  outright.  And  yet  not  his  will  would  be  done,  but 
the  .will  of  Him  \'ho  had  already  overthrown  Satan  and 
all  his  kingdom. 


436  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE   CHURCH. 

Soon  afterwards,  the  desire  of  the  CathoHcs  for  coercive 
measures  was  stiniulated  afresh  bj  the  news  of  a  defeat 
which  the  Eeformed  cities  in  Switzerland  had  sustained  at 
the  hands  of  the  five  CathoHc  Cantons,  notwithstanding 
that  the  balance  of  force  inclined  there  far  more  than  in 
Germany  to  the  side  of  the  Evangelicals.  The  struggle 
which  Luther  was  perpetually  endeavouring  to  avert  from 
Germany,  culminated  in  Switzerland  in  a  bloody  outbreak, 
mainly  at  Zwingli's  instigation.  Zwingli  himself  fell  on 
October  11  in  the  battle  of  Cappel,  a  victim  of  the  patriotic 
schemes  by  which  he  had  laboured  to  achieve  for  his 
country  a  grand  reform  of  politics,  morality,  and  the 
Chm'ch,  but  for  which  he  had  failed  to  enlist  any  intelli- 
gent or  unanimous  co-operation  on  the  part  of  his  compa- 
nions in  faith.  Ferdinand  triumphed  over  this  first  great 
victory  for  the  Catholic  cause.  He  was  now  ready  to 
renounce  humbly  his  claim  upon  Hungary,  so  that,  by 
making  peace  with  the  Sultan,  he  might  leave  his  own  and 
the  Emperor's  hands  free  in  Germany.  Luther  saw  in  the 
fate  of  Zwingli  another  judgment  of  God  against  the  spirit 
of  Münzer,  and  in  the  whole  course  of  the  war  a  solemn 
warning  for  the  members  of  the  Schmalkaldic  League  not 
to  boast  of  any  human  alliance,  and  to  do  theh*  utmost  to 
preserve  peace. 

But  the  events  in  Switzerland  gave  no  handle  against 
those  who  had  not  joined  the  Zwinglians,  nor  were  even 
the  latter  weakened  thereby  in  power  and  organisation. 
The  South  Germans  had  now  to  cling  all  the  more  firmly 
to  their  alliance  with  the  Lutheran  princes  and  cities  ;  the 
Zwinglian  movement  suffered  shortly  afterwards  (Dec.  1) 
a  severe  loss  in  the  death  of  Oecolampadius.  Finally 
the  Sultan  was  not  satisfied  with  Ferdinand's  repeated 
offers,  but  prepared  for  a  new  campaign  against  Austria 
in  the  spring  of  1532,  and  towards  the  end  of  April  he  set 
out  for  it. 

This  checked  the  feverous  desire  of  Germans  for  war 


TO    THE  RELIGIOUS  PEACE   OF  NUREMBERG.  437 

against  their  fellow-countrymen,  and  brought  to  a  practical 
result  the  negotiations  for  a  treaty  which  had  been  con- 
ducted early  in  1532  at  Schweinfurt,  and  later  on  at 
Nuremberg.  They  amounted  to  this  :  that  all  idea  of  an 
agreement  on  the  religious  and  ecclesiastical  questions  in 
dispute  was  abandoned  until  the  hoped-for  Council  should 
take  place,  and  that,  as  had  long  been  Luther's  opinion, 
they  should  rest  content  with  a  political  peace  or  modm 
vivendi,  which  should  recognise  both  parties  in  the  position 
they  then  occupied.  The  main  dispute  was  on  the  further 
question,  how  far  this  recognition  should  extend  ; — whether 
only  to  the  Schmalkaldic  allies,  the  immediate  parties  to 
the  present  agreement,  or  to  such  other  States  of  the 
Empire  as  might  go  over  to  the  new  doctrine  from  the  old 
Church— which  still  remained  the  established  Church  of 
the  Emperor  and  the  Empire  in  general— and,  perhaps 
further,  to  Protestant  subjects  of  Catholic  princes  of  the 
Empire.  There  was  also  still  the  question  as  to  the  validity 
of  Ferdinand's  election  as  King  of  Eome.  Luther  was 
again  and  again  asked  for  his  opinion  on  this  subject. 

He  was  just  then  suffering  from  an  unusually  severe 
attack,  which  incessantly  reminded  him  of  his  approaching 
end.  In  addition,  he  was  deeply  concerned  about  the 
health  of  his  beloved  Elector.  Early  in  the  morning  of 
January  22  he  was  seized  again,  as  his  friend  Dietrich,  who 
lived  with  him,  informs  us,  with  another  violent  attack  in 
his  head  and  heart.  His  friends  who  had  come  to  him 
began  to  speak  of  the  effect  his  death  would  have  on  the 
Papists,  when  he  exclaimed,  '  But  I  shall  not  die  yet,  I  am 
certain.  God  will  never  strengthen  the  Papal  abominations 
by  letting  me  die  now  that  Zwingli  and  Oecolampadius  are 
just  gone.  Satan  would  no  doubt  like  to  have  it  so  :  he 
dogs  my  heels  every  moment ;  but  not  his  will  will  be  done, 
but  the  Lord's.'  The  physician  thought  that  apoplexy  was 
imminent,  and  that  if  so,  Luther  could  hardly  recover. 
The  attack  however  seems  to  have  quickly  passed  away,  but 


438  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE  CHURCH. 

Luther's  head  remained  racked  with  pain.  A  few  weeks 
later,  towards  the  end  of  February,  he  had  to  visit  the 
Elector  at  Torgau,  who  was  lying  there  in  great  suffering, 
and  had  been  compelled  to  have  the  great  toe  of  his  left 
foot  amputated.  Luther  writes  thence  abo.ut  himself  to 
Dietrich,  saying  that  he  was  thinking  about  the  preface  to 
his  translation  of  the  Prophets,  but  suffered  so  severely 
from  giddiness  and  the  torments  of  Satan,  that  he  well-nigh 
despaked  of  living  and  returning  to  Wittenberg.  '  My 
head,'  he  says,  '  will  do  no  more :  so  remember  that,  if  I 
die,  your  talents  and  eloquence  will  be  wanted  for  the 
preface.'  For  a  whole  month,  as  he  remarked  at  the 
beginning  of  April,  he  was  prevented  from  readmg,  writing, 
and  lecturing.  He  informed  Spalatin,  in  a  letter  of  May 
20,  which  Bugenhagen  wrote  for  him,  that  at  present,  God 
willing,  he  must  take  a  holiday.  And  on  June  13  he  told 
Amsdorf  that  his  head  was  gradually  recovering  through 
the  intercessions  of  his  friends,  but  that  he  despaired  of 
regaining  his  natural  powers. 

Notwithstanding  this  condition  and  frame  of  mind, 
Luther  continued  to  send  cordial,  calm,  and  encouraging 
words  of  peace,  concerning  the  negotiations  then  pending, 
both  to  the  Elector  John  and  his  son  John  Frederick. 

Concerning  Ferdinand's  election  Luther  declared  to 
these  two  princes  on  February  12,  and  again  afterwards, 
that  it  must  not  be  allowed  to  embarrass  or  prevent  a  treaty 
of  peace.  If  it  violated  a  trifling  article  of  the  Golden 
Bull,  that  was  no  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  God 
could  show  the  Protestants,  for  a  mote  like  this  in  the  eyes 
of  their  enemies,  whole  beams  in  their  own.  It  must 
needs  be  an  intolerable  burden  to  the  Elector's  conscience 
if  war  were  to  arise  in  consequence, — a  war  which  might 
*  well  end  in  rending  the  Empire  asunder  and  letting  in  the 
Turks,  to  the  ruin  of  the  Gospel  and  everything  else.' 

An  opinion,  drawn  up  on  May  16  by  Luther  and 
Bugenhagen,  was  equally  decided  in  counselling  submission 


TO   THE  RELIGIOUS  PEACE   OF  NUREMBERG.  439 

on  the  question  as  to  the  extension  of  the  truce,  if 
peace  itself  depended  upon  it.  For  if  the  Emperor,  he 
said,  was  now  pleased  to  grant  security  to  the  now  existing 
Protestant  States,  he  did  so  as  a  favour  and  a  personal 
privilege.  They  could  not  coerce  him  into  showing  the 
same  favour  to  others.  Others  must  make  the  venture  by 
the  grace  of  God,  and  hope  to  gain  security  in  like  manner. 
Everyone  must  accept  the  gospel  at  his  own  peril. 

Luther  began  already  to  hear  the  reproach  that  to 
adopt  such  a  course  would  be  to  renounce  brotherly  love, 
for  Christians  should  seek  the  salvation  and  welfare  of 
others  besides  themselves.  He  was  reproached  again  with 
disowning  by  his  conduct  the  Protestant  ideal  of  religious 
freedom  and  the  equal  rights  of  Confessions.  Very  dif- 
ferently will  he  be  judged  by  those  who  realise  the  legal 
and  constitutional  relations  then  existing  in  Germany,  and 
the  ecclesiastico-political  views  shared  in  common  by  Pro- 
testants and  Catholics,  and  who  then  ask  what  was  to  be 
gained  by  a  course  contrary  to  that  which  he  advised  in 
the  way  of  peace  and  positive  law.  That  the  sovereigns  of 
Catholic  States  should  secure  toleration  to  the  Evangelical 
worship  in  their  own  territories  w^as  opposed  to  those  general 
principles  by  vh'tue  of  which  the  Protestant  rulers  took  pro- 
ceedings against  their  Catholic  subjects.  According  to  those 
principles,  nothing  was  left  for  subjects  who  resisted  the 
established  religion  of  the  country  but  to  claim  free  and  un- 
molested departure.  Luther  observed  with  justice,  '  What 
thou  wilt  not  have  done  to  thee,  do  not  thou  to  others.'  With 
regard  to  the  further  question  as  to  the  princes  who  should 
hereafter  join  the  Protestants,  it  certainly  sounds  naive  to 
hear  Luther  speak  of  a  present  mere  act  of  favour  on  the 
part  of  the  Emperor.  But  he  was  strictly  right  in  his  idea, 
that  a  concession,  involving  the  separation  of  some  of  the 
States  of  the  Empire  from  the  one  Church  system  hitherto 
established  indivisibly  throughout  the  Empire,  and  their 
organisation   of  a   separate   Church,    had   no   foundation 


440  RECONSTRUCTION  OF   THE   CHURCH. 

whatever  in  imperial  law  as  existing  before  and  up  to  the 
Eeformation,  and  could  in  so  far  be  regarded  simply  as  a 
free  concession  of  the  Emperor  and  Empire  to  individual 
members  of  the  general  body ;  who,  therefore,  had  no 
right  to  compel  the  extension  of  this  concession  to  others, 
and  thereby  hazard  the  peace  of  the  Empire.  Something 
had  already  been  gained  by  the  fact  that  at  least  no  limi- 
tation was  expressed.  A  door  was  thus  left  open  for  exten- 
sion at  a  future  time ;  and  for  those  who  wished  to  profit 
by  this  fact,  the  danger,  if  only  peace  could  be  assured, 
was  at  any  rate  diminished.  If  we  may  see  any  merit  in 
the  fact  that  the  German  nation  at  that  time  was  spared  a 
bloody  war,  unbounded  in  its  destructive  results,  and  that 
a  peaceful  solution  was  secured  for  a  number  of  years,  that 
merit  is  due  in  the  first  place  to  the  great  Reformer.  He 
acted  throughout  like  a  true  patriot  and  child  of  his  Father- 
land, no  less  than  like  a  true  Christian  teacher  and  adviser 
of  conscience. 

The  negotiations  above  described  involved  the  further 
question  about  a  Council,  pending  which  a  peaceful  agree- 
ment was  now  effected.  In  the  article  providing  for  the 
convocation  of  a  '  free  Christian  Council,'  the  Protestants 
demanded  the  addition  of  the  words,  '  in  which  questions 
should  be  determined  according  to  the  pure  Word  of  God.' 
On  this  point,  however,  Luther  was  unwilling  to  prolong  the 
dispute.  He  remarked  with  practical  wisdom  that  the 
addition  would  be  of  no  service  ;  their  opponents  would  in 
any  case  wish  to  have  the  credit  of  having  spoken  accord- 
ing to  the  pure  Word  of  God. 

In  June  bad  news  came  again  from  Nuremberg,  tending 
to  the  belief  that  the  Papists  had  thwarted  the  work  of 
peace.  Luther  again  exclaimed,  as  he  had  done  after  the 
Diet  of  Augsburg,  *  Well,  well  !  your  blood  be  upon  your 
own  heads  ;  we  have  done  enough.' 

Towards  the  end  of  the  month,  when  the  Elector  again 
invited  his  opinion,  he  repeated,  with  even  more  urgency 


TO    THE  RELIGIOUS  PEACE   OE  NUREMBERG.  441 

than  before,  his  warnings  to  those  Protestants  also  who 
were  *  far  too  clever  and  confident,  and  who,  as  tlu>ir 
language  seemed  to  show,  wished  to  have  a  peace  not  open 
to  dispute.'  He  begged  the  Elector,  in  all  humility,  to 
'  write  in  earnest  a  good,  stern  letter  to  our  brethren,'  that 
they  might  see  how  much  the  Emperor  had  graciously 
conceded  to  them  which  could  be  accepted  with  a  good 
conscience,  and  not  refuse  such  a  gracious  peace  for  the 
sake  of  some  paltry,  far-fetched  point  of  detail.  God  would 
surely  heal  and  provide  for  such  trifling  defects. 

On  July  23  the  peace  was  actually  concluded  at 
Nuremberg,  and  signed  by  the  Emperor  on  August  2. 
Both  parties  were  mutually  to  practise  Christian  toleration 
until  the  Council  was  held ;  one  of  these  parties  being  ex- 
pressly designated  as  the  Schmalkaldic  allies.  The  value 
of  this  treaty  for  the  maintenance  of  Protestantism  m 
Germany  was  shown  by  the  indignation  displayed  by  the 
Papal  legates  from  the  first  at  the  Emperor's  concessions. 

The  Elector  John  was  permitted  to  survive  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  peace,  which  he  had  been  foremost  among  the 
princes  in  promoting.  Shortly  after,  on  August  15,  he 
was  seized  with  apoplexy  when  out  hunting,  and  on  the  fol- 
lowing day  he  breathed  his  last.  Luther  and  Melancthon, 
who  were  summoned  to  him  at  Schweinitz,  found  him  un- 
conscious. Luther  said  his  beloved  prince,  on  awakening, 
would  be  conscious  of  everlasting  hfe ;  just  as  when  he 
came  from  hunting  on  the  Lochau  heath,  he  would  not  know 
what  had  happened  to  him ;  as  said  the  prophet  (Isaiah 
Ivii.  1,  2),  *  The  righteous  is  taken  away  from  the  evil  to 
come.  He  shall  enter  into  peace  ;  they  shall  rest  in  their 
beds.'  Luther  preached  at  his  funeral  at  Wittenberg,  as  he 
had  done  seven  years  before  at  his  brother's,  and  Spalatin 
tells  us  how  he  wept  like  a  child. 

John  had,  throughout  his  reign,  laboured  conscientiously 
to  follow  the  Word  of  God,  as  taught  by  Luther,  and  to 
encounter  all  dangers  and  diJß&culties  by  the  strength  of 


442  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH, 

faith.  He  has  rightly  earned  the  surname  of  '  the  Stead- 
fast.' Luther  especially  praises  his  conduct  at  the  Diet  of 
Augsburg  in  this  respect ;  he  frequently  said  to  his  coun- 
cillors on  that  occasion,  '  Tell  my  men  of  learning  that  they 
are  to  do  what  is  right,  to  the  praise  and  glory  of  God,  with- 
out regard  to  me,  or  to  my  country  and  people.'  Luther  dis- 
tmguished  piety  and  benevolence  as  the  two  most  prominent 
features  of  his  character,  as  wisdom  and  understanding 
had  been  those  of  the  Elector  Frederick's.  *  Had  the  two 
princes,'  he  gaid,  *  been  one,  that  man  would  have  been  a 
marvel.' 


PAET  VI. 

FROM  THE  RELIGIOUS  PEACE  OF  NlfREMBERG 
TO    THE  DEATH  OF  LUTHER. 


CHAPTER   I. 

LtTHER   UNDER   JOHN   FREDERICK.       1632-34. 

Political  peace  had  been  the  blessing  which  Luther  hoped 
to  see  obtained  for  his  countrymen  and  his  Church,  during 
the  anxious  time  of  the  Augsburg  Diet.  Such,  a  peace  had 
now  been  gained  by  the  development  of  political  relations, 
in  which  he  himself  had  only  so  far  co-operated  as  to  ex- 
hort the  Protestant  States  to  practise  all  the  moderation  in 
their  power.  He  saw  in  this  result  the  dispensation  of  a 
higher  power,  for  which  he  could  never  be  thankful  enough 
to  God.  For  the  remainder  of  his  life  he  was  permitted  to 
enjoy  this  peace,  and,  so  far  as  he  could,  to  assist  in  its  pre- 
servation. In  the  enjoyment  of  it  he  continued  to  build  on 
the  foundations  prepared  for  him  under  the  protecting 
patronage  of  Frederick  the  AYise,  and  on  which  the  first 
stone  of  the  new  Church  edifice  had  been  laid  under  the 
Elector  John. 

A  longer  time  was  given  him  for  this  work  than  he  had 
anticipated.  We  have  had  occasion  frequently  to  refer  not 
only  to  his  thoughts  of  approaching  death,  but  also  to  the 
severe  attacks  of  illness  which  actually  threatened  to  prove 
fatal.  Although  these  attacks  did  not  recur  with  such  dan- 
gerous severity  in  the  later  years  of  his  life,  still  a  sense  of 
weakness  and  premature  old  age  invariably  remained  behind 


444         LUTHER'S  LATER    YEARS  AND  DEATH. 

them.  Exhaustion,  caused  by  his  work  and  the  struggles  he 
had  undergone,  debarred  him  from  exertion  for  which  he  had 
all  the  will.  He  constantly  complained  of  weakness  in  the 
head  and  giddiness,  which  totally  unfitted  him  for  work, 
especially  in  the  morning.  He  would  break  out  to  his 
friends  with  the  exclamation,  *  I  waste  my  life  so  uselessly, 
that  I  have  come  to  bear  a  marvellous  hatred  towards  my- 
self. I  don't  know  how  it  is  that  the  time  passes  away  so 
quickly,  and  I  do  so  little.  I  shall  not  die  of  years,  but  of 
sheer  want  of  strength.'  In  beggmg  one  of  his  friends  at  a 
distance  to  visit  him  once  more,  he  reminds  him  that,  in  his 
present  state  of  health,  he  must  not  forget  that  it  might  be 
for  the  last  time.  No  wonder  then  if  his  natural  excitability 
was  often  morbidly  increased.  He  always  looked  forward 
with  joy  to  his  leaving  this  '  wicked  world,'  but  as  long  as 
he  had  to  work  in  it,  he  exerted  all  his  powers  no  less  for 
his  own  immediate  task  than  for  the  general  affairs  of  the 
Church,  which  incessantly  demanded  his  attention. 

The  mutual  trust  and  friendship  subsisting  between  the 
Eeformer  and  his  sovereign  continued  unbroken  with  John's 
son  and  successor,  John  Frederick.  This  Elector,  born  in 
1503,  had,  while  yet  a  youth,  embraced  Luther's  teaching 
with  enthusiasm,  and  leaned  upon  him  as  his  spiritual 
father.  Luther,  on  his  side,  treated  him  with  a  confidential, 
easy  intimacy,  but  never  forgot  to  address  him  as  '  Most 
illustrious  Prince '  and  '  Most  gracious  Lord.'  When  the 
young  man  assumed  the  Electorship,  and  appeared  at 
Wittenberg  a  few  days  after  his  father's  death,  he  at  once 
invited  Luther  to  preach  at  the  castle  and  to  dine  at  his 
table.  Luther  expressed  indeed  to  friends  his  fear  that  the 
many  councillors  who  surrounded  the  young  Elector  might 
try  to  exert  evil  influences  upon  him,  and  that  he  might 
have  to  pay  dearly  for  his  experience.  It  might  be,  he 
said,  that  so  many  dogs  barking  round  him  would  make 
him  deaf  to  anyone  else.  For  instance,  they  might  take  a 
grudge  against  the  clergy  and  cry  out,  if  admonished  by 


LUTHER    UNDER  JOHN  FREDERICK.  445 

them,  what  can  a  more  clerk  know  about  it  ?  But  his 
relations  with  his  prince  remained  undisturl)ed.  He  saw 
with  joy  how  the  latter  was  beginning  to  gather  up  the 
reins  which  his  gentle-minded  father  had  allowed  to  grow 
too  slack,  and  he  hoped  that  if  God  would  grant  a  few 
years  of  peace,  John  Frederick  would  take  in  hand  real  and 
important  reforms  in  his  government,  and  not  merely  com- 
mand them  but  see  them  executed. 

The  Elector's  wife,  Sybil, -a  princess  of  Juliers,  shared 

her  husband's  friendship    for   Luther.     The   Elector   had 

married  her  in  1526,  after  taking  Luther  into  his  confidence, 

and  being  warned  by  him  against  needlessly  delaying  the 

blessing  which  God  had  willed  to  grant  him.     On   what  a 

footing  of  cordial  intimacy  she  stood  with  both  Luther  and 

his  wife,  is  shown  by  a  letter  she  wrote  to  him  in  January 

1529,  while  her  husband  was  away  on  a  journey.     She  says 

that  she  will  not  conceal  from  him,  as  her  '  good  friend  and 

lover  of  the  comforting  Word  of  God,'  that  she  finds  the 

time   very  tedious  now  that  her   most    beloved   lord  and 

husband  is  away,  and  that  therefore  she  would  gladly  have 

a  word  of  comfort  from  Luther,  and  be  a  little  cheerful 

with  him  ;  but  that  this  is  impossible  at  Weimar,  so  far  off 

as  it  is,  and  so  she  commends  all,  and  Luther  and  his  dear 

wife,  to  the  loving  God,  and  will  put  her  trust  in  Him. 

She  begs  him  in  conclusion  :  *  You  will  greet  your  dear 

wife  very  kindly  from  us,  and   wish  her  many  thousand 

good-nights,  and  if  it  is  God's  will,  we  shall  be  very  glad 

to  be  with  her  some  day,  and  with  you  also,  as  well  as  with 

her :  this  you  may  believe  of  us  at  all  times.'     In  the  last 

years    of  his   hfe   Luther   had  to  thank   her   for    similar 

greetings  and  inquiries  after  his  own  health  and  that  of  his 

family. 

In  the  tenth  year  of  the  new  Elector's  reign  Luther 
was  able  publicly  and  confidently  to  bear  witness  against 
the  calumnies  brought  against  his  government.  '  There  is 
now,'  he  said  *  thank  God,  a  chaste  and  honourable  manner 


446         LUTHER'S  LATER    YEARS  AND  DEATH. 

of  life,  truthful  lips,  and  a  generous  hand  stretched  out  to 
help  the  Church,  the  schools,  and  the  poor ;  an  earnest, 
constant,  faithful  heart  to  honour  the  Word  of  God,  to 
punish  the  bad,  to  protect  the  good,  and  to  maintain  peace 
and  order.  So  pure  also  and  praiseworthy  is  his  married 
life,  that  it  can  well  serve  as  a  beautiful  example  for 
all,  princes,  nobles,  and  everyone— a  Christian  home  as 
peaceful  as  a  convent,  which  men  are  so  wont  to  praise. 
God's  Word  is  now  heard  .daily,  and  sermons  are  well 
attended,  and  prayer  and  praise  are  given  to  God,  to  say 
nothing  of  how  much  the  Elector  himself  reads  and  writes 
every  day.'  Only  one  thing  Luther  could  not  and  would 
not  justify,  namely,  that  at  times  the  Elector,  especially 
when  he  had  company,  drank  too  much  at  table.  Un- 
happily the  vice  of  intemperance  prevailed  then  not  only 
at  court  but  throughout  Germany.  Still  John  Frederick 
could  stand  a  big  drink  better  than  many  others,  and,  with 
the  exception  of  this  failing,  even  his  enemies  must  allow 
him  to  have  been  endued  with  great  gifts  from  God,  and 
all  manner  of  virtues  becoming  a  j)raiseworthy  prince  and 
a  chaste  husband.  Luther's  personal  relations  with  the 
Elector  never  made  him  scruple  to  express  to  him  freely,  in 
his  letters,  words  of  censure  as  well  as  of  praise. 

In  his  academical  lectures  Luther  devoted  his  chief 
labours  for  several  terms  after  1531  to  St.  Paul's  Epistle 
to  the  Galatians.  He  had  already  commenced  this  task 
before  and  during  the  contest  about  indulgences,  his  object 
having  been  to  expound  to  and  impress  upon  his  hearers 
and  readers  the  great  truth  of  justification  by  faith,  set 
forth  in  that  Epistle  with  such  conciseness  and  power. 
This  doctrine  he  always  regarded  as  a  fundamental  verity 
and  the  groundwork  of  religion.  In  all  its  fulness  and  clear- 
ness, and  with  all  his  old  freshness,  vigour,  and  intensity  of 
fervour,  he  now  exhaustively  discussed  this  doctrine.  His 
lectures,  published,  with  a  preface  of  his,  by  the  Wittenberg 
chaplain  Körer  in   1535,  contain  the  most  complete  and 


LUTHER    UNDER  JOHN  FREDERICK.  447 

classical  exposition  of  his  Pauline  doctrine  of  salvation. 
In  the  introduction  to  these  lectures  he  declared  that  it 
was  no  new  thing  that  he  was  offering  to  men,  for  by  the 
grace  of  God  the  whole  teaching  of  St.  Paul  was  now  made 
known ;  but  the  greatest  danger  was,  lest  the  devil  should 
again  filch  away  that  doctrine  of  faith  and  smuggle  in  once 
more  his  own  doctrine  of  human  works  and  dogmas.  It 
could  never  be  sufficiently  impressed  on  man,  that  if  the 
doctrine  of  faith  perished,  all  knowledge  of  the  truth  would 
perish  with  it,  but  that  if  it  flourished,  all  good  things  would 
also  flourish,  namely,  true  religion,  and  the  true  worship 
and  glory  of  God.  In  his  preface  he  says :  '  One  article — the 
only  solid  rock  — rules  m  my  heart,  namely,  faith  in  Christ : 
out  of  which,  through  which,  and  to  which  all  my  theological 
opinions  ebb  and  flow  day  and  night.'  To  his  friends  he 
says  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  :  *  That  is  my  Epistle, 
which  I  have  espoused  :  it  is  my  Katie  von  Bora.' 

His  sermons  to  his  congregation  were  now^  much  hin- 
dered by  the  state  of  his  health.  It  was  his  practice,  how- 
ever, after  the  spring  of  1532,  to  j^reach  every  Sunday  at 
home  to  his  family,  his  servants,  and  his  friends. 

But  his  greatest  theological  w^ork,  which  he  intended 
for  the  service  of  aU  his  countrymen,  was  the  continuation 
and  final  conclusion  of  his  translation  of  the  Bible.  After 
publishing  in  1532  his  translation  of  the  Prophets,  which 
had  cost  him  immense  pains  and  industry,  the  Apocrypha 
alone  remained  to  be  done  ; — the  books  which,  in  bringing 
out  his  edition  of  the  Bible,  he  designated  as  inferior  in 
value  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  useful  and  good  to  read. 
AVell  might  he  sigh  at  times  over  the  work.  In  November 
1532,  being  then  wholly  engrossed  with  the  book  of  Sirach, 
he  w^rote  to  his  friend  Amsdorf  saying  that  he  hoped  to 
escape  from  this  treadmill  in  three  weeks,  but  no  one  can 
discover  any  trace  of  weariness  or  vexation  in  the  German 
idiom  in  which  he  clothed  the  proverbs  and  apophthegms  of 
this  book.     Notwithstanding  the  length  of  time  which  his 


448         LUTHER'S  LATER    YEARS  AND  DEATH. 

task  occupied,  and  his  constant  interruptions,  it  has  turned 
out  a  work  of  one  mould  and  casting,  and  shows  from  the 
first  page  to  the  last  how  completely  the  translator  was 
absorbed  in  his  theme,  and  yet  how  closely  his  life  and 
thoughts  were  interwoven  with  those  of  his  fellow  country- 
men, for  whom  he  wrote  and  whose  language  he  spoke. 
In  1534  the  whole  of  his  German  Bible  was  at  length  in 
print,  and  the  next  year  a  new  edition  was  called  for.  Of 
the  New  Testament,  wdth  w^hich  Luther  had  commenced 
the  work,  as  many  as  sixteen  original  editions,  and  more 
than  fifty  different  reimpressions,  had  appeared  up  to  1533. 
With  regard  to  the  w^ants  of  the  Church,  Luther  looked 
to  the  energy  of  the  new  Elector  for  a  vigorous  prosecution 
of  the  work  of  visitation.  A  reorganisation  of  the  Church 
had  been  effected  by  these  means,  but  many  more  evils  had 
been  exposed  than  cured,  nor  had  the  visitations  been  yet 
extended  to  all  the  parishes.  The  Elector  John  had  already 
called  on  Luther,  together  with  Jonas  and  Melancthon,  for 
their  opinion  as  to  the  propriety  of  resuming  them,  and 
only  four  days  before  his  death  he  gave  instructions  on  the 
subject  to  his  chancellor  Brück.  John  Frederick,  in  the 
first  year  of  his  rule,  did  actually  put  the  new  visitation 
into  operation,  in  concert  with  his  Landtag.  The  main 
object  sought  at  present  was  to  bring  about  better  discipline 
among  the  members  of  the  various  congregations,  and  to 
put  down  the  sins  of  drunkenness,  unchastity,  frivolous 
swearing,  and  witchcraft.  Luther  and  even  Melancthon 
were  no  longer  required  to  give  their  services  as  visitors : 
Luther's  place  on  the  commission  for  Electoral  Saxony 
was  filled  by  Bugenhagen.  His  own  views  and  prospects 
in  regard  to  the  condition  of  the  people  remained  gloomy. 
He  complains  that  the  Gospel  bore  so  little  fruit  against 
the  powers  of  the  flesh  and  the  world  ;  he  did  not  ex- 
pect any  great  and  general  change  through  measures  of 
ecclesiastical  law,  but  trusted  rather  to  the  faithful  preach- 
ing of  the  Divine  Word,  leaving  the  issue  to  God.     It  was 


LUTHER   UNDER  JOHN  FREDERICK,  449 

particularly  the  nobles  and  peasants  whom  he  had  to 
rebuke  for  open  or  secret  resistance  against  this  Word. 
He  exclaims  in  a  letter  to  Spalatin,  written  in  1533 :  '0 
how  shamefull}'  ungrateful  are  our  times !  Everywhere 
nobles  and  peasants  are  conspiring  in  our  country  against 
the  Gospel,  and  meanwhile  enjoy  the  freedom  of  it  as  in- 
solently as  they  can  ;  God  will  judge  in  the  matter  ! '  He 
had  to  complain  besides  of  indifference  and  immorality  in 
his  immediate  neighbourhood,  among  his  Wittenbergers. 
Thus  he  addressed,  on  Midsummer  Day  1534,  after  his 
sermon,  a  severe  rebuke  to  drunkards  who  rioted  in  taverns 
during  the  time  of  Divine  service,  and  he  exhorted  the 
magistrates  to  do  their  duty  by  proceeding  against  them, 
so  as  not  to  incur  the  punishment  of  the  Elector  or  of  God. 
The  territories  of  Anhalt,  immediately  adjoining  the 
dominions  of  the  Saxon  Elector,  now  openly  joined  the 
Evangelical  Confession,  of  which  their  prince,  Wolfgang  of 
Köthen,  had  long  been  a  faithful  adherent;  and  Luther 
contracted  in  this  quarter  new  and  close  friendships,  like 
that  which  subsisted  between  himself  and  his  own  Elector. 
Anhalt  Dessau  w^as  under  the  government  of  three  nephews 
of  AVolfgang,  namely,  John,  Joachim,  and  George.  They 
had  lost  their  father  in  early  life.  One  of  them  had  for  his 
guardian  the  strictly  Catholic  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  the 
second,  Duke  George  of  Saxony,  and  the  third,  the  Cardinal 
Archbishop  Albert.  George,  born  in  1507,  was  made  in  1518 
canon  at  Merseburg,  and  afterwards  prebendary  of  Magde- 
burg cathedral.  The  Cardinal  had  taken  peculiar  interest 
in  him  ever  since  his  boyhood,  on  account  of  his  excellent 
abilities,  and  he  did  honour  to  his  office  by  his  fidelity,  zeal, 
and  purity  of  life.  The  new  teaching  caused  him  severe 
internal  struggles.  His  theological  studios  showed  him 
how  rotten  were  the  foundations  of  the  Romish  system, 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  new  doctrine  awakened  suspicions 
on  his   part  lest,  with  its  advocacy  of  gospel  liberty  and 

G  G 


450  LUTHER  AND  THE  PROTESTANTS. 

justification  by  faith,  it  might  tempt  to  sedition  and  im- 
morahty.  But  it  finally  won  his  heart,  when  he  learned  to 
know  it  in  its  pure  form  through  the  Augsburg  Confession 
and  the  Apology  of  Melancthon,  while  the  Catholic  Eefuta- 
tion  drawn  up  for  the  Diet  of  Augsburg  excited  his  disgust. 
His  two  brothers,  whose  devoutness  of  character  their 
enemies  could  no  more  dispute  than  his  own,  became 
converts  also  to  Protestantism.  In  1532  they  appointed 
Luther's  friend  Nicholas  Hausmann  their  court-preacher, 
and  invited  Luther  and  Melancthon  to  stay  wdth  them  at 
Wörlitz.  George,  in  virtue  of  his  office  as  archdeacon 
and  prebendary  of  Magdeburg,  himself  undertook  the  visi- 
tation, and  had  the  candidates  for  the  office  of  preacher 
examined  at  Wittenberg.  Luther  eulogised  the  two  brothers 
as  '  upright  princes,  of  a  princely  and  Christian  disposition,* 
adding  that  they  had  been  brought  up  by  worthy  and  God- 
fearing parents.  He  kept  up  a  close  and  intimate  friend- 
ship with  them,  both  personally  and  by  letter.  A  disposi- 
tion to  melancholy  on  the  part  of  Joachim  gave  Luther  an 
opportunity  of  corresponding  with  him.  While  cheering 
him  with  spiritual  consolation,  he  recommended  him  to 
seek  for  mental  refreshment  in  conversation,  singing,  music, 
and  cracking  jokes.  Thus  he  wrote  to  him  in  1534  as 
follows  :  '  A  merry  heart  and  good  courage,  in  honour  and 
discipline,  are  the  best  medicine  for  a  young  man  —aye,  for 
all  men.  I,  who  have  spent  my  life  in  sorrow  and  weari- 
ness, now  seek  for  pleasure  and  take  it  wherever  I  can 
....  Pleasure  in  sin  is  the  devil,  but  pleasure  shared  with 
good  people  in  the  fear  of  God,  in  discipline  and  honour, 
is  well-pleasing  to  God.  May  your  princely  Highness  be 
always  cheerful  and  blessed,  both  inwardly  in  Christ,  and 
outwardly  in  His  gifts  and  good  things.  He  wills  it  so,  and 
for  that  reason  He  gives  us  His  good  things  to  make  use  of, 
that  we  may  be  happy  and  praise  Him  for  ever.' 

During   these   years,  the  negotiations   concerning   the 
general  affairs  of  the  Church,  the  restoration  of  harmony  in 


LUTHER    UNDER  JOHN  FREDERICK.  451 

the  Christian  Church  of  the  West,  and  the  internal  union 
of  the  Protestants,  still  proceeded,  though  languidly  and 
with  little  spirit. 

With  the  promise,  and  pending  the  assembly,  of  a 
Council,  the  Pieligious  Peace  had  been  at  length  concluded. 
Before  the  close  of  1532  the  Emperor  actually  succeeded  in 
mducing  Pope  Clement,  at  a  personal  interview  with  him  at 
Bologna,  to  announce  his  intention  to  convoke  a  Council 
forthwith.  He  urged  him  to  do  so  by  frightening  him  with 
the  prospect  of  a  German  national  synod,  such  as  even  the 
orthodox  States  of  the  Empire  might  resolve  on,  in  the 
event  of  the  Pope  obstinately  opposing  a  Council,  and  in 
that  case,  of  a  possible  combination  of  the  entire  German 
nation  against  the  Papal  see.  He  knew,  indeed,  w^ell 
enough,  that  the  Holy  Father,  in  making  this  promise,  had 
no  intention  whatever  of  keeping  it.  The  Pope  now  sent  a 
nuncio  to  the  German  princes,  to  make  preparations  for 
giving  effect  to  his  promise ;  the  Emperor  sent  with  him 
an  ambassador  of  his  own,  as  w^ell  for  his  control  as  his 
support. 

\ATien  the  nuncio  and  ambassador  reached  John  Frede- 
rick at  Weimar,  the  Elector  consulted  with  Luther,  Bugen- 
hagen,  Jonas,  and  Melancthon  about  the  object  of  their 
coming,  and  for  that  purpose,  on  June  15, 1533,  he  came  in 
person  to  Wittenberg,  and  had  an  opinion  drawn  up  in 
writing.  The  Papal  invitation  to  the  Council  stated  that, 
agreeably  with  the  demands  of  the  Germans,  it  should  be  a 
free  Christian  Council,  and  also  that  it  should  be  held  in  ac- 
cordance with  ancient  usage  as  from  the  beginning.  Luther 
declared  that  this  was  merely  a  '  muttering  in  the  dark,' 
half  angel-like,  half  devil-like.  For  if  by  the  words  '  from 
the  beginning'  were  meant  the  primitive  Christian 
assemblies,  such  as  those  of  the  Apostles  (Acts  xv.),  then 
the  Council  now  intended  was  bound  to  act  according  to 
the  Word  of  God,  freely,  and  without  regard  to  any  future. 
Councils ;  a  Council  on  the  other  hand,  held  according  to 

G  G    2 


452  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

previous  usage,  as,  for  example,  that  of  Constance,  was  a 
Council  contrary  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  held  in  mere 
human  blmdness  and  wantonness.  The  Pope,  in  describing 
the  Council  proposed  by  himself  as  a  free  one,  was  making 
sport  of  the  Emperor,  the  request  of  the  Evangelicals,  and 
the  decrees  of  the  Diet.  How  could  the  Pope  possibly 
tolerate  a  free  Christian  Councu  when  he  must  be  quite 
aware  how  disadvantageous  such  a  Council  would  be  to 
himself  ?  Luther's  advice  was  briefly  summed  up  in  this  : 
to  restrict  themselves  to  the  bare  formalities  of  speech 
required,  and  to  wait  for  further  events.  *  I  think  it  is 
best,'  he  said,  '  not  to  busy  ourselves  at  present  with  any- 
thing more  than  what  is  necessary  and  moderate,  and  that 
can  give  no  handle  to  the  Pope  or  the  Emperor  to  accuse 
us  of  intemperate  conduct.  Whether  there  be  a  Councu 
or  not,  the  time  will  come  for  action  and  advice.'  And 
it  soon  became  clear  enough,  that  Clement  at  any  rate 
would  not  convene  a  Council.  He  now  entered  into  an 
understanding  with  King  Francis,  who  was  again  meditating 
an  attack  against  the  power  of  Charles  V.,  listened  to  his 
proposal  that  the  Council  might  be  abandoned,  and  in 
March  1534  announced  to  the  German  princes  that,  agree- 
ably to  the  King's  wish,  he  had  resolved  to  adjourn  its 
convocation. 

How  firmly  Luther  persisted — Council  or  no  Council — 
in  his  uncompromising  opposition  to  the  Eomish  system, 
was  now  shown  by  several  of  his  new  writings,  more 
especially  by  his  treatise  '  On  private  Masses  and  the 
Consecration  of  Priests.'  Concerning  private  masses,  and 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ's  Body  supposed  to  be  there  offered, 
he  now  declared  that,  where  the  ordinance  of  Christ  was 
so  utterly  perverted,  Christ's  Body  was  assuredly  not 
present  at  all,  but  simple  bread  and  simple  wine  was  wor- 
shipped by  the  priest  in  vain  idolatry,  and  offered  for  others 
to  worship  in  like  manner.  He  knew  how  they  would 
*come  rolling  up  to  him  with  the  words,  "  Church,  Church; 


LUTHER    UNDER  JOHN  FREDERICK.  453 

custom,  custom,"  just  as  they  had  answered  him  once  before 
in  his  attack  on  indulgences ;  but  neither  the  Church  nor 
custom  had  been  able  to  preserve  indulgences  from  their 
fate.'  In  the  Church,  even  under  the  Popedom,  he 
recognised  a  holy  place,  for  in  it  was  baptism,  the  read- 
ing of  the  Gospel,  prayer,  the  Apostles'  Creed,  &c.  But  he 
repeats  now,  what  he  had  said  in  his  most  pungent  writings 
during  the  earlier  struggles  of  the  Eeformation,  namely, 
that  devilish  abominations  had  entered  into  this  place,  and 
so  penetrated  it  with  their  presence,  that  only  the  light  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  would  enable  one  to  distinguish  between 
the  place  itself  and  these  abominations.  He  contrasts  the 
mass-holding  priests  and  their  stinking  oil  of  consecration 
with  the  universal  Christian  priesthood  and  the  evangelical 
office  of  preacher.  To  the  principle  of  this  priesthood  he 
still  firmly  adhered,  faithless  though  he  saw  the  large  mass 
of  the  congregations  to  the  priestly  character  with  which 
baptism  had  invested  them,  and  strictly  as  he  had  to  guide 
his  action,  in  the  appointment  and  outward  constitution  of 
that  office,  by  existing  circumstances  and  historical  require- 
ments. Thus  he  repeats  what  he  had  said  before,  '  We 
are  all  born  simple  priests  and  pastors  in  baptism ;  and  out 
of  such  born  priests,  certain  are  chosen  or  called  to  certain 
offices,  and  it  is  their  duty  to  perform  the  various  functions 
of  those  offices  for  us  all.'  This  universal  priesthood  he 
would  assert  and  utilise  in  the  celebration  of  Divine  service 
and  in  the  true  Christian  mass  ;  and  he  appeals  for  that 
purpose  to  the  true  worship  of  God  by  an  Evangelical 
congregation.  '  There,'  he  says,  '  our  priest  or  minister 
stands  before  the  altar,  having  been  duly  and  publicly 
called  to  his  priestly  office ;  he  repeats  publicly  and  dis- 
tinctly Christ's  words  of  institution ;  he  takes  the  Bread 
and  Wine,  and  distributes  it  according  to  Christ's  words ; 
and  we  all  kneel  beside  and  around  him,  men  and  women, 
young  and  old,  master  and  servant,  mistress  and  maid, 
all  holy  priests  tojsether,  sanctified  by  the  Blood  of  Christ. 


454  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

And  in  such  our  priestly  dignity  are  we  there,  and  (as 
pictured  in  Eevelations  iv.)  we  have  our  crowns  of  gold 
on  our  heads,  harps  in  our  hands,  and  golden  censers  ; 
and  we  do  not  let  our  priest  proclaim  for  himself  the 
ordinance  of  Christ,  but  he  is  the  mouthpiece  of  us  all, 
and  we  all  say  it  with  him  from  our  hearts,  and  with 
sincere  faith  in  the  Lamb  of  God,  Who  feeds  us  with  His 
Body  and  Blood.' 

In  1533  Erasmus  published  a  work  wherein  he  en- 
deavoured to  effect  in  his  own  way  the  restoration  of  unity 
in  the  Church,  by  exhorting  men  to  abolish  practical 
abuses  and  show  submission  in  doctrinal  disputes,  profess- 
ing for  his  own  part  unvarying  subjection  to  the  Church. 
In  opposition  to  him,  Luther  hit  the  right  point  in  a 
preface  he  wrote  to  the  reply  of  the  Marburg  theologian 
Corvinus.  Erasmus,  he  said,  only  strengthened  the  Papists, 
who  cared  nothing  about  a  safe  truth  for  their  consciences, 
but  only  kept  on  crying  out  '  Church,  Church,  Church.' 
For  he  too  kept  on  simply  repeating  that  he  wished  to 
follow  the  Church,  whilst  leaving  everything  doubtful  and 
undetermined  until  the  Church  had  settled  it.  *  What,'  asks 
Luther,  '  is  to  be  done  with  those  good  souls,  who,  bound  in 
conscience  by  the  word  of  Divine  truth,  cannot  believe  doc- 
trines evidently  contrary  to  Scripture  ?  Shall  we  tell  them 
that  the  Pope  must  be  obeyed  so  that  peace  and  unity  may 
be  preserved  ?  '  When,  therefore,  Erasmus  sought  to  ob- 
tain unity  of  faith  by  mutual  concession  and  compromise, 
Luther  answered  by  declaring  such  unity  to  be  impossible, 
for  the  simple  reason  that  the  Catholics,  by  their  very 
boasting  of  the  authority  of  the  Church,  absolutely  refused 
on  their  part  to  make  any  concession  at  all.  But  so  far  as 
*  unity  of  charity  '  was  concerned,  he  held  that  on  that  point 
the  Evangelicals  needed  no  admonishment,  for  they  were 
ready  to  do  and  suffer  all  things,  provided  nothing  was  im- 
posed upon  them  contrary  to  the  faith.  They  had  never 
thirsted  for  the  blood  of  their  enemies,  though  the  latter 


LUTHER    UNDER  JOHN  FREDERICK.  455 

would  gladly  persecute  them  with  fire  and  sword.  As  for 
Erasmus  hmisclf,  Luther,  as  already  stated,  simply  re- 
garded him  as  a  sceptic,  who  with  his  attitude  of  subjection  to 
the  Church,  sought  only  for  peace  and  safety  for  himself 
and  his  studies  and  intellectual  enjoyments.  Acting  on 
this  view,  Luther,  in  a  letter  to  Amsdorf,  written  in  1534, 
and  intended  for  publication,  heaped  reproaches  on  Eras- 
mus which  undoubtedly  he  uttered  in  honest  zeal,  but  in 
which  his  zeal  did  not  allow  him  to  form  an  impartial 
estimate  of  his  opponent  or  his  writings.  He  saw  the  bad 
spirit  of  Erasmus  reflected  in  other  men,  who,  like  him, 
had  seen  the  true  character  of  the  Komish  Church,  but, 
like  him  also,  rejoined  her  communion.  Instances  of  this 
were  found  in  his  old  friend  Crotus,  w^ho  had  now  entered 
the  service  of  Cardinal  Albert,  and  as  his  '  plate-licker,* 
as  Luther  called  him,  abused  the  Eeformation  ;  and  in 
the  theologian  George  Witz  el,  a  pupil  of  Erasmus  and 
student  at  Wittenberg,  who  formerly  had  been  suspected 
even  of  sympathising  with  the  peasants  in  their  rebellion, 
and  of  rejecting  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  but  who  now- 
wished  for  a  Eeformation  after  Erasmus'  ideas,  and  was 
one  of  the  foremost  literary  opponents  of  the  Lutheran 
Reformation.  Luther,  however,  deemed  it  superfluous, 
after  all  that  he  had  said  against  the  master,  to  turn 
also  against  his  subordinates,  and  the  mere  mouthpieces 
of  his  teaching. 

In  addition  to  Luther's  polemics  against  Catholicism  in 
general,  must  be  mentioned  a  fresh  quarrel  with  Duke 
George.  The  latter,  in  1532,  had  expelled  from  Saxony 
some  evangelically  disposed  inhabitants  of  Leipzig  and 
Oschatz,  decreed  that  everyone  should  appear  once  a  year 
at  church  for  confession,  and  ordered  some  seventy  or 
eighty  families  of  Leipzig,  who  had  refused  to  do  so,  to 
quit  his  dominions.  Luther  sent  letters,  which  were  after- 
wards published,  of  comfort  to  the  exiled,  and  of  exhortation 
and  advice  to  those  who  were  threatened.     Duke  George 


456  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

thereupon  complained  to  the  Elector  that  Luther  was  ex- 
citing his  subjects  to  sedition.  Luther,  in  reply,  spoke 
out  again  with  double  vehemence  m  a  public  vindication, 
whilst  George  made  Cochlaeus  write  against  him.  Further 
quarrelling  was  ended  by  the  two  princes  agreeing,  in 
November  1533,  to  settle  certain  matters  in  dispute, 
and  their  theologians  also  were  commanded  to  keep  at 
peace.  With  regard  to  the  future,  however,  Luther  had 
spoken  words  of  significance  and  weight  to  his  persecuted 
brethren  at  Leipzig,  when  he  reminded  them  what  great 
and  unexpected  things  God  had  done  since  the  Diet  of 
Worms,  and  how  many  bloodthh'sty  persecutors  He  had 
since  then  snatched  away.  'Let  us  wait  a  little  while,' 
he  said,  '  and  see  what  God  will  bring  to  pass.  Who  knows 
what  God  will  do  after  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  even  before 
ten  years  have  gone  by  ?  ' 

Firmly,  however,  as  Luther  refused  to  listen  to  any 
surrender  in  matters  of  faith,  or  to  any  subjection  to  a 
Catholic  Council  of  the  old  sort,  he  desired  no  less  to  adhere 
loyally  to  the  '  political  concord.'  His  whole  heart  and 
sympathies,  as  a  fellow- Christian  and  a  good  German,  went 
out  with  the  German  troops  in  their  march  against  the 
Turks,  who  he  hoped  might  be  well  routed  by  the  Em- 
peror. He  never  reflected  how  perilous  the  consequences 
of  a  decisive  victory  by  Charles  Y.  over  his  foreign  enemies 
would  be  for  the  Protestants  of  Germany,  and  how  divided, 
therefore,  these  must  feel,  at  least  in  their  hopes  and  wishes, 
during  the  progress  of  the  war.  He  only  saw  in  him  again 
the  *  dear  good  Emperor.'  He  wished  him  like  success 
against  his  evil-minded  French  enemy.  The  Pope  especi- 
ally he  reproached  for  his  persistent  ill-will  to  the  Emperor. 
The  Popes,  he  said,  had  always  been  hostile  to  the  Em- 
perors, and  had  betrayed  the  best  of  them  and  wantonly 
thwarted  their  desires. 

Early  in  1534  Philip  of  Hesse  set  in  earnest  about  his 
scheme,  so  momentous  for  Protestantism,  of   forcibly  ex- 


LUTHER   UNDER  JOHN  FREDERICK.  457 

pelling  King  Ferdinand  from  Würtemberg,  and  restoring  it 
to  the  exiled  Duke  Ulrich.  The  latter,  whom  the  Swabian 
League  in  1519,  upon  a  decision  of  the  Emperor  and 
Empire,  had  deprived  of  his  territory,  and  transferred  it  to 
the  House  of  Austria,  was  staying  with  the  Landgrave  in 
1529,  with  whom  he  attended  the  conference  at  Marburg, 
and  shared  his  views  on  Church  matters.  ^  Since  then  the 
Swabian  League  was  dissolved,  and  Philip  seized  this  favour- 
able opportunity  to  interfere  on  behalf  of  his  friend.  The 
King  of  France  promised  his  aid,  and  m  Germany,  especi- 
ally among  the  Catholic  Bavarians,  a  strong  desire  prevailed 
to  weaken  the  power  of  Austria.  Luther's  public  judg- 
ment being  of  such  weight,  and  his  counsels  so  influential 
with  the  Elector  Frederick,  Philip  informed  him,  through 
pastor  Ottinger  of  Cassel,  of  his  preparations  for  war,  lest 
he  might  otherwise  be  wrongly  given  to  understand  that  he 
was  meditating  a  step  against  the  Emperor.  His  inten- 
tion, he  declared,  was  merely  to  '  restore  and  reinstate 
Duke  Ulrich  to  his  rights  in  all  fairness,'  in  the  sight  of 
God  and  of  his  Imperial  Majesty.  He  *  belonged  to  no 
faction  or  sect :  ' — this,  wrote  Ottinger,  he  was  '  instructed 
by  his  princely  Highness  not  to  conceal  from  Luther.'  The 
latter,  however,  at  a  conference  with  his  Elector  and  the 
Landgrave  at  Weimar,  protested  against  a  breach  of  the 
public  peace,  as  tending  to  bring  disgrace  upon  the  gospel ; 
and  the  Elector,  in  consequence,  kept  aloof  from  the  enter- 
prise. Philip,  however,  persisted,  and  carried  it  through 
with  rapidity  and  success.  Ferdinand,  being  helpless  in 
the  absence  of  the  Emperor,  consented,  in  the  treaty  of 
Cadan,  to  the  restoration  of  Ulrich,  who  immediately  set 
about  a  reformation  of  the  Church  in  Würtemberg.  Luther 
recognised  in  this  result  the  evident  hand  of  God,  in  that, 
contrary  to  all  expectation,  nothing  was  destroyed  and  peace 
was  happily  restored.  God  would  bring  the  work  to  an  end. 
Meanwhile  the  Schmalkaldic  allies  clung  tenaciously  to 
their  league,  and  were  intent  on  still  further  strengthening 


458  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

their  position  and  preparing  themselves  for  all  emergencies. 
No  scruples  as  to  whether,  if  the  Emperor  should  break 
the  peace,  they  could  venture  to  turn  their  arms  against 
him,  any  longer  disturbed  them.  The  terms  extorted 
from  King  Ferdinand  by  the  Landgrave's  victorious  cam- 
paign, were  also  in  then-  favour.  Ferdinand,  in  the  treaty 
of  Cadan,  promised  to  secure  them  against  the  suits  which 
the  Imperial  Chamber,  notwithstanding  the  Eeligious 
Peace,  still  continued  to  institute  against  them,  in  return 
for  which  John  Frederick  and  his  allies  consented  to  recog- 
nise his  election  as  King  of  the  Eomans. 

And  in  the  interests  and  for  the  objects  represented  by 
the  league,  namely,  to  oppose  a  sufficiently  strong  and  com- 
pact power  to  Eoman  Catholicism  and  its  menaces,  those 
further  attempts  were  now  made  to  promote  internal  union 
among  the  Protestants,  to  which  Butzer  had  so  unremit- 
tingly devoted  his  labours,  and  which  the  Landgrave  Philip 
among  the  princes  considered  of  the  utmost  value. 

Luther,  although  he  admitted  having  formed  a  more 
favourable  opinion  of  Zwingli  as  a  man,  since  their  personal 
interview  at  Marburg,  in  no  way  altered  his  opinion  of 
Zwinglianism  or  of  the  general  tendency  of  his  doctrines. 
Thus  in  a  letter  of  w^arning  sent  by  him  in  December  1532 
to  the  burgomaster  and  town-council  of  Münster,  he  classed 
Zwingli  with  Münzer  and  other  heads  of  the  Anabaptists,  as 
a  band  of  fanatics  whom  God  had  judged,  and  pointed  out 
that  whoever  once  followed  Zwingli,  Münzer,  or  the  Ana- 
baptists, would  very  easily  be  seduced  into  rebellion  and 
attacks  on  civil  government.  At  the  beginning  of  the  next 
year  he  published  a  *  Letter  to  those  at  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main,'  in  order  to  counteract  the  Zwinglian  doctrines  and 
agitations  there  prevailing.  He  also  warned  the  people  of 
Augsburg  against  their  preachers,  inasmuch  as  they  pre- 
tended to  accept  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  the  Sacrament, 
but  in  reality  did  nothing  of  the  kind.  He  abstained  from 
entering  into  any  further  controversy  against  the  substance 


LUTHER    UNDER  JOHN  ERE  DE  RICK.  459 

of  doctrines  opposed  to  his  own.  He  was  concerned  not 
so  much  ahout  the  victory  of  his  own  doctrine,  which  he  left 
with  confidence  in  God's  hands,  but  lest,  under  the  guise  of 
agreement  with  him,  error  should  creep  in  and  deceit  be 
practised  in  a  matter  so  sacred  and  important.  He  always 
felt  suspicious  of  Butzer  on  this  point. 

He  now  saw  the  evil  and  terrible  fruits  of  that  spirit 
which  had  possessed  Münzer  and  the  Anabaptists, — such 
fi-uits  as  he  had  always  expected  from  it.  In  Münster, 
where  his  w^arnmg  had  passed  unregarded,  the  Anabaptists 
had  been  masters  since  February  1534.  As  the  pretended 
possessors  of  Christianity  in  its  intellectual  and  spiritual 
purity,  they  established  there  a  kingdom  of  the  samts,  with 
a  mad,  sensual  fanaticism,  a  coarse  worship  of  the  flesh, 
and  a  wild  thirst  for  blood.  This  kingdom  was  demolished 
the  next  year  by  the  combined  forces  of  the  Emperor  and 
the  bishop,  but  a  further  consequence  of  their  defeat  was 
the  exclusion  of  Protestantism  from  the  city,  which  sub- 
mitted again  to  episcopal  authority.  About  the  Zwin- 
glian  *  Sacramentarianism '  Luther  wrote  at  that  time, 
'  God  will  mercifully  do  away  with  this  scandal,  so  that 
it  may  not,  like  that  of  Münster,  have  to  be  done  away 
with  by  force.' 

Butzer,  however,  did  not  allow  himself  to  be  deterred 
or  wearied.  His  wish  was  that  the  agreement  in  doctrine 
which  had  already  been  arrived  at  between  Luther  and  the 
South  Germans  admitted  to  the  Swabian  League,  should  l)e 
publicly  and  emphatically  acknowledged  and  expressed. 
He  laboured  and  hoped  to  convince  even  the  people  of 
Zurich  and  the  other  Swiss  that  they  attached — as,  in  fact, 
they  did — too  harsh  a  meaning  to  Luther's  doctrines,  and 
so  to  induce  them  to  reconcile  them  as  nearly  as  they  could 
with  their  own.  But  they  could  not  be  persuaded  further 
than  to  admit  that  Christ's  Body  was  really  present  in  the 
Sacrament,  as  food  for  the  souls  of  those  who  partook  in 
faith.     They  were  as  suspicious,  from  their  standpoint,  of 


46o  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

his  attempts  at  mediation,  as  Luther  was  from  his.  Butzer 
represented  to  the  Landgrave  that  the  South  German  towns, 
his  alhes,  were  united  in  doctrine,  and  that  the  only  objec- 
tion raised  by  the  Swiss  was  to  the  notion  that  Christ  and 
His  Body  became  actual  '  food  for  the  stomach,' — a  notion 
which  Luther  also  refused  wholly  to  entertain.  For  when 
the  latter  said  that  Christ's  Body  was  eaten  with  the  mouth, 
he  explained  at  the  same  time  that  the  mouth  indeed  only 
touched  the  bread  and  did  not  reach  this  Body,  and  that  his 
doctrine  was  simply  a  declaration  of  a  sacramental  unity,  in 


Fig.  43.—  Butzer.     (From  the  old  original  woodcut  of  Eeusner.) 

SO  far  as  the  mouth  eats  the  bread  which  is  united  with  the 
body  in  the  Sacrament.  The  matter,  said  Butzer,  was  a 
mere  disjjute  about  words,  and  was  only  so  difficult  to 
settle  because  they  had  *  abused  and  sent  each  other  to  the 
devil  too  much.' 

The  Landgrave  Philip  wrote  to  Luther^  and  Luther  now 
repeated  with  warmth  his  own  desire  for  a  *  well-established 
union,'  which  would  enable  the  Protestants  to  oppose  a 
common  front  to  the  immoderate  arrogance  of  the  Papists p 


LUTHER    UNDER  JOHN  FREDERICK.  461 

He  only  warned  him  again  lest  the  matter  should  remain 
*  rotten  and  unstable  in  its  foundations.'  The  Landgrave 
then  arranged,  with  Luther's  approval,  a  conference  between 
Melancthon  and  Butzer  at  Cassel  for  December  27,  1534. 
Luther  sent  to  them  a  *  Consideration,  whether  unity  is  pos- 
sible or  not.'  He  repeated  in  this  tract,  with  studied  pre- 
cision and  emphasis,  those  tenets  of  his  doctrine  to  which 
Butzer  had  referred.  The  matter,  he  said,  ought  not  to 
remain  uncertain  or  ambiguous.  But  when  Butzer  now 
agreed  with  Luther's  own  opinion,  and  sent  to  him  at 
Wittenberg  an  explanation  that  Christ's  Body  was  truly 
present,  but  not  as  food  for  the  stomach,  Luther,  in 
January  1535, declared  as  his  judgment,  that,  since  the  South 
German  preachers  were  willing  to  teach  in  accordance  with 
the  Augsburg  Confession,  he,  for  his  part,  neither  could  nor 
would  refuse  such  concord ;  and  since  they  distinctly  con- 
fessed that  Christ's  Body  was  really  and  substantially  pre- 
sented and  eaten,  he  could  not,  if  their  hearts  agreed  with 
their  words,  find  fault  with  these  words.  He  would  only 
prefer,  as  there  was  still  too  much  mistrust  among  his  own 
brethren,  that  the  act  of  concord  should  not  be  concluded 
quite  so  suddenly,  but  that  time  should  be  allowed  for  a 
general  quieting  down.  '  Thus,'  he  said,  *  our  people  will 
be  able  to  moderate  their  suspicion  or  ill-will,  and  finally  let 
it  drop;  and  if  thus  the  troubled  waters  are  calmed  on  both 
sides,  a  real  and  permanent  union  can  be  ultimately  brought 
about.'  Of  the  Swiss  no  notice  was  taken  in  these  nego- 
tiations. 

Meanwhile  Butzer  and  Philip  had  to  rest  content  with 
this  ;  and  was  it  not  an  important  step  forwards  ?  This  work 
of  union,  together  with  the  Council  which  was  to  help  in 
uniting  the  whole  Church,  took  a  prominent  place  during 
the  next  few  years  of  Luther's  life  and  labours. 


462  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 


CHAPTEE  II. 

NEGOTIATIONS  RESPECTING  A  COUNCIL  AND  UNION  AMONG  THE 
PROTESTANTS. —  THE  LEGATE  VERGERIUS  1535. —  THE 
WITTENBERG   CONCORD    1536. 

Pope  Paul  III.,  who  succeeded  Clement  VII.  in  October 
1534,  seemed  at  once  determined  to  bring  about  in  reality 
the  promised  Council.  And  in  fact  he  was  quite  earnest  in 
the  matter.  He  was  not  so  indifferent  as  his  predecessor 
to  the  real  interests  of  the  Church  and  the  need  of  certain 
reforms,  and  he  hoped,  like  a  clever  politician,  to  turn  the 
Council,  which  could  now  no  longer  be  evaded,  to  the 
advantage  of  the  Papacy.  With  this  object,  and  with  a 
view  in  particular  of  arranging  the  place  where  the  Council 
should  be  held,  which  he  proposed  should  be  Mantua,  he 
sent  a  nuncio,  the  Cardinal  Vergerius,  to  Germany. 

In  August  1535  Luther  was  desked  by  his  Elector  to 
submit  an  opinion  on  the  proposals  of  the  Pope.  He 
thought  it  sufficient  to  repeat  the  answer  he  had  given  two 
years  before,  namely,  that  the  prince  had  then  fully  ex- 
pressed his  zeal  for  the  restoration  of  Church  unity  by 
means  of  a  Council,  but  at  the  same  time  had  required  that 
its  decisions  should  be  strictly  according  to  God's  Word, 
and  declared  that  he  could  not  give  any  definite  consent 
without  his  allies.  Luther  still  declined,  moreover,  to 
believe  that  the  project  of  a  Council  was  sincere. 

The  university  of  Wittenberg  had  been  removed  dm-ing 
the  summer  to  Jena,  on  account  of  a  fresh  outbreak  of 
the  plague,  or  at  all  events  an  alarm  of  it,  and  there  they 
remained  till  the  following  February.      Luther,  however, 


THE   COUXCIL  AND  INTERNAL    UNION.         463 

would  not  listen  to  the  idea  of  lecO-ving  Wittenberg.  This 
time  he  could  stay  there  in  all  rest  and  cheerfulness  with 
Bugcnliagen,  and  make  merry  with  the  idle  fears  of  others. 
To  the  Elector,  who  was  full  of  anxiety  about  him,  Luther 
wrote  on  July  9,  saying  that  only  one  or  two  cases  of  the 
disease  had  appeared ;  the  air  was  not  yet  poisoned.  The 
dog-days  being  at  hand,  and  the  young  people  frightened, 
they  might  as  well  be  allowed  to  walk  about,  to  calm  their 
thoughts,  until  it  was  seen  what  would  happen.  He  noticed, 
however,  that  some  had  *  caught  ulcers  in  their  pockets, 
others  colic  in  their  books,  and  others  gout  in  their 
papers ; '  some,  too,  had  no  doubt  eaten  their  mother's 
letters,  and  hence  got  heart-ache  and  homesickness.  The 
Christian  authorities,  he  said,  must  provide  some  strong 
medicine  against  such  a  disease,  lest  mortality  might  arise 
in  consequence, — a  medicine  that  would  defy  Satan,  the 
enemy  of  all  arts  and  discipline.  He  was  astonished  to 
find  how  much  more  was  known  of  the  great  plague  at 
Wittenberg  in  other  parts  than  in  the  town  itself,  where 
in  truth  it  did  not  exist,  and  how  much  bigger  and  fatter 
lies  grew  the  farther  they  travehed.  He  assured  his  friend 
Jonas,  who  had  gone  away  with  the  university,  that,  thanks 
to  God,  he  was  living  there  in  solitude,  in  perfect  health 
and  comfort ;  only  there  was  a  dearth  of  beer  in  the  town, 
though  he  had  enough  in  his  own  cellar.  Nor  did  Luther 
afterwards  give  way  to  fear  when  compelled  to  acknowledge 
several  fatal  cases  of  the  plague,  and  when  his  own  coach- 
man once  seemed  to  be  stricken  with  it.  He  himself  was 
a  sufferer,  throughout  the  winter,  from  a  cough  and  other 
catarrhic  affections.  *  But  my  greatest  ihness,'  he  wrote 
to  a  friend,  '  is,  that  the  sun  has  so  long  shone  upon  me,— 
a  plague  which,  as  you  know  well,  is  very  common,  and 
many  die  of  it.' 

The  Papal  nuncio  now  arrived  at  Wittenberg,  and  desired 
to  speak  to  Luther  in  person.  After  an  interview  at  Halle 
with  the  Archbishop  Albert,  he  had  taken  the  road  through 


464  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

Wittenberg  ou  his  way  to  visit  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg 
at  Berlin.  On  the  afternoon  of  November  6,  a  Saturday, 
he  entered  Wittenberg  in  state,  with  twenty-one  horses  and 
an  ass,  intending  to  take  up  his  quarters  there  for  the 
night,  and  was  received  with  all  due  honour  at  the  Elector's 
castle  by  the  governor  Metzsch.  Luther  vras  invited,  at  the 
nuncio's  request,  to  sup  with  him  that  evening,  but  as  the 
former  declined  the  invitation,  he  was  asked  with  Bugen - 
hagen  to  take  breakfast  with  him  the  next  morning.  It 
was  the  first  time,  since  his  summons  by  Caietan  at  Augs- 
burg in  1518,  that  Luther  had  to  speak  with  a  Papal 
legate — Luther,  who  had  long  smce  been  condemned  by  the 
Pope  as  an  abominable  child  of  corruption,  and  who  in 
turn  had  declared  the  Pope  to  be  Antichrist.  So  im- 
portant must  Vergerius  have  thought  it,  to  attempt  to  influ- 
ence, if  even  only  partially,  the  powerful  adviser  of  the 
Protestant  princes,  and  thereby  to  prevent  him  from  check- 
mating his  plans  in  regard  to  a  Council.  And  in  this 
respect  Vergerius  must  have  had  considerable  confidence  in 
himself. 

The  next  morning  Luther  ordered  his  barber  to  come  at 
an  unusually  early  hour.  Upon  the  latter  expressing  his 
surprise,  Luther  said  jokingly,  '  I  have  to  go  to  the  Papal 
nuncio;  if  only  I  look  young  when  he  sees  me,  he  may 
think  "  Fie,  the  devil,  if  Luther  has  played  us  such  tricks 
before  he  is  an  old  man,  what  won't  he  do  when  he  is 
one?'*'  Then,  in  his  best  clothes  and  with  a  gold  chain 
round  his  neck,  he  drove  to  the  castle  with  the  town-priest 
Bugenhagen  (Pomeranus).  'Here  go,'  he  said,  as  he  stepped 
into  the  carriage,  *  the  Pope  of  Germany  and  Cardinal 
Pomeranus,  the  instruments  of  God  ! ' 

Before  the  legate  he  *  acted,'  as  he  expressed  it,  *  the 
complete  Luther.'  He  employed  towards  him  only  the 
most  indispensable  forms  of  civility,  and  made  use  of  the 
*most  ill-humoured'  language.  Thus  he  asked  him 
whether    he  was    looked    upon    in    Italy  as   a   drunken 


THE  COUNCIL  AXD  INTERNAL    UNION        465 

German.  When  they  came  to  speak  al)()iit  the  settlement 
of  the  Church  (juestions  hi  dispute  l)y  a  Council,  Yergerius 
reminded  him  that  one  individual  fallible  man  had  no  ri<^dit 
to  consider  himself  wiser  than  the  Councils,  the  ancient 
Fathers,  and  other  theologians  of  Christendom.  To  this 
Luther  replied  that  the  Papists  were  not  really  in  earnest 
about  a  Council,  and,  if  it  were  held,  they  would  only  care 
to  treat  about  such  trifles  as  monks'  cowls,  priests'  ton- 
sures, rules  of  diet,  and  so  forth ;  whereupon  the  legate 
turned  to  one  of  his  attendants,  who  w^as  sitting  by,  with 
the  words  4ie  has  hit  the  right  nail  on  the  head.'  Luther 
went  on  to  assert  that  they,  the  Evangelicals,  had  no  need 
of  a  Council,  being  already  fuhy  assured  about  their  own 
doctrine,  though  other  poor  souls  might  need  one,  who 
were  led  astray  by  the  tyranny  of  the  Popedom.  Never- 
theless he  promised  to  attend  the  proposed  Council,  even 
though  he  should  be  burned  by  it.  It  was  the  same  to 
him,  he  said,  whether  it  was  held  at  Mantua,  Padua,  or 
Florence,  or  anywhere  else.  'Would  you  come  to  Bologna?' 
said  Vergerius.  Luther  asked,  thereupon,  to  whom 
Bologna  belonged,  and  on  being  told  '  to  the  Pope,' 
'  Gracious  heavens,'  he  exclaimed,  *  has  the  Pope  seized 
that  town  too? — Very  well,  I  will  come  to  you  even 
there.'  Vergerius  politely  hinted  that  the  Pope  himself 
would  not  refuse  to  come  to  W^ittenberg.  *  Let  him  come,' 
said  Luther ;  '  we  shall  be  very  glad  to  see  him.'  *  But,'  said 
Vergerius,  '  would  you  have  him  come  with  arms  or  with- 
out ?  '  *As  he  pleases,'  replied  Luther;  '  we  shall  be  ready 
to  receive  him  in  either  way.'  When  the  legate,  after  their 
meal,  was  mounting  his  horse  to  depart,  he  said  to  Luther, 
*Be  sure  to  hold  yourself  in  readiness  for  the  Council.' 
*  Yes,  sir,'  was  the  reply,  *  with  this  my  very  neck  and  head.' 
Vergerius  afterwards  related  .that  he  had  found  Luther 
to  be  coarse  in  conversation,  and  his  Latin  bad,  and  had 
answered  him  as  far  as  possil)le  in  monosyllables.     The 

H  H 


466  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

excuse  he  urged  for  his  interview  was  that  Luther  and 
Bugenhagen  were  the  only  men  of  learning  at  "Wittenberg, 
with  whom  he  could  converse  in  Latin.  He  evidently  felt 
himself  unpleasantly  deceived  in  the  expectations  and 
projects  he  had  formed  before  the  meetmg.  Ten  years 
later,  when  his  conflict  with  Evangelical  doctrine  had 
taught  him  thoroughly  its  real  meaning  and  value,  this 
high  dignitary  himself  became  a  convert  to  it. 

In  the  meantime,  while  the  eyes  of  all  were  fixed  upon 
the  approaching  Council,  the  state  of  affairs  in  Germany 
was  eminently  favourable  to  the  Evangelicals. 

The  Emperor,  during  the  summer  of  1535,  was  detained 
abroad  by  his  operations  against  the  corsair  Chaireddin 
Barbarossa  in  Tunis,  and  Luther  rejoiced  over  tha  victory 
with  which  God  blessed  his  arms.  The  King  of  France  was 
threatening  with  fresh  claims  on  Italian  territory.  The 
jealousy  between  Austria  and  Bavaria  still  continued.  With 
regard  to  the  Church,  King  Ferdinand  learned  to  value 
Lutheranism  at  any  rate  as  a  barrier  against  the  progress 
of  the  more  dangerous  doctrines  of  Zwingli.  John  Frederick 
journeyed  in  November  1535  to  Vienna,  to  receive  from 
him  at  length,  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor,  the  investiture 
of  the  Electorship,  and  met  with  a  friendly  reception. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  Schmalkaldic  League 
resolved,  at  a  convention  at  Schmalkald  in  December  1535, 
to  invite  other  States  of  the  Empire,  which  were  not  yet 
recognised  in  the  Eeligious  Peace  as  members  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  to  join  them.  The  Dukes  Barnim 
and  Philip  of  Pomerania  had  now  accepted  this  Con- 
fession. Philip  also  married  a  sister  of  John  Frederick. 
Luther  performed  the  marriage  service  on  the  evening  of 
February  27  at  Torgau,  and  Bugenhagen  pronounced,  the 
next  morning,  the  customary  benediction  on  the  young 
couple,  Luther  being  prevented  from  doing  so  by  a  fresh 
attack  of  giddiness.  The  following  spring  a  convention  of 
the   allies  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main  received  the  Duke  of 


THE   COUNCIL  AND  INTERNAL    UNION.        467 

Würtemberg,  the  Dukes  of  Pomerania,  the  princes  of 
Anhalt,  and  several  towns  into  their  league. 

Outside  Germany,  the  Kings  of  France  and  England 
sought  fello\vship  vdth  the  allies.  Ecclesiastical  and 
religious  questions,  of  course,  had  first  to  be  considered; 
and  Luther  with  others  was  called  on  for  his  advice. 

King  Francis,  so  many  of  whose  Evangelical  subjects 
were  complaining  of  oppression  and  persecution,  was 
anxious,  as  he  was  now  meditating  a  new  campaign  in 
Italy,  to  secure  an  alliance  with  the  German  Protestants 
against  the  Emperor,  and  accordingly  pretended  with 
great  solicitude  that  he  had  in  view  important  reforms  in 
the  Church,  and  would  be  glad  of  their  assistance.  They 
were  invited  to  send  Melancthon  and  Luther  to  him  for 
that  purpose.  With  these  he  negotiated  also  in  person. 
Melancthon  felt  himself  much  attracted  by  the  prospect 
thus  opened  to  him  of  rendering  important  and  useful 
service.  The  Elector,  however,  refused  him  permission 
to  go,  and  rebuked  him  for  having  already  entangled 
himself  so  far  in  the  affair.  Melancthon's  expectations 
were  certainly  very  vain :  the  King  only  cared  for  his 
political  interests,  and  in  no  case  would  he  grant  to  any  of 
his  subjects  the  right  to  entertain  or  act  upon  religious 
convictions  which  ran  counter  to  his  own  theory  of  the 
Church.  Moreover,  John  Frederick's  relations  with  King 
Ferdinand  had  by  this  time  become  so  peaceful,  that  the 
Elector  was  anxious  not  to  disturb  them  by  an  alliance  with 
the  enemy  of  the  Emperor.  Melancthon,  however,  was 
much  excited  by  his  refusal  and  reproof;  he  suspected  that 
others  had  maliciously  intrigued  against  him  with  his  prince. 
Luther,  at  first  moved  by  Melancthon's  wish  and  the 
entreaties  of  French  Evangelicals,  had  earnestly  begged 
the  Elector  to  permit  Melancthon  *in  the  name  of  God 
to  go  to  France.'  *  Who  knows,'  he  said,  *  what  God  may 
wish  to  do  ? '     He  was  afterwards  startled  on  his  friend's 

Hn2 


468  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

account  by  the  severe  letter  of  the  Elector,  but  was  obliged 
to  acknowledge  that  the  latter  was  right  in  his  distrust  of 
the  affair. 

An  alliance  w^ith  England  would  have  promised  greater 
security,  inasmuch  as  with  Henry  VIII.  there  was  no  longer 
any  fear  of  his  return  to  the  Papacy,  and  with  regard  to 
the  proceedings  about  his  marriage,  a  reconciliation  with 
the  EmjDeror  was  scarcely  to  be  expected.     Envoys  from 
him  appeared  in  1535  in  Saxony  and  at  the  meeting  at 
Schmalkald.     Henry  also  wished  for  Melancthon,  in  order 
to   discuss  with   him   matters   of  orthodoxy  and   Church 
government,  and  Luther  again  begged  permission  of  the 
Elector  for  him  to  go.     But  it  was  clearly  seen  from  the 
negotiations  conducted  with  the  English  envoys  in  Germany, 
how  slender  were  the  hopes  of  effecting  any  agreement  with 
Henry  VIII.  on  the  chief  points,  such  as  the  doctrine  of 
Justification  or  of  the   mass,  since  the  English  monarch 
insisted  every  whit  as  strictly  upon  that  Catholic  orthodoxy, 
to  which  he  still  adhered,  as  he  did  upon  his  opposition  to 
Papal  power.     Luther  had  already  in  January  grown  sick 
to  loathing  of  the  futile  negotiations  with  England :  *  pro- 
fessing themselves  to  be  wise,  they  became  fools  '  (Eom.  i. 
22).     He  advised  therefore,  in  his  opinion  submitted  to  the 
Elector,  that   they  should   have  patience  with  respect   to 
England   and   the   proper   reforms   in   that   quarter,    but 
guarded  himself  against  deviating  on  that  account  from  the 
fundamental  doctrines  of  belief,  or  conceding  more  to  the 
King  of  England  than  they  would  to  the  Emperor  and  the 
Pope.     As  to  contracting  a  political  alliance  with  Henry,  he 
left  that  question,  as  a  temporal  matter,  for  the  prince  and 
his  advisers  to  decide  ;    but  it  seemed  to  him  dangerous, 
where  no  real  sympathy  prevailed.     How  hazardous  it  was 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  Henry  VIII .  was  shown  im- 
mediately after  by  his  conduct  towards  his  second  wife  Anna 
Boleyn,  whom  he  had  executed  on  May  19,  1536.     Luther 
called  this  act  a  monstrous  tragedy. 


THE   COUNCIL  AXD  INTERNAL    UNION.        469 

Among  the  German  Protestants,  however,  the  negotia- 
tions respecting  the  Sacramental  doctrine  were  happily 
brought  to  maturity  in  a  duly  formulated  '  Concord.' 
Peace  also  was  secured  with  the  Swiss,  and  therewith  the 
possibility  of  an  eventual  alliance. 

Now  that  Luther  had  once  felt  confidence  in  these 
attempts  at  union,  he  took  the  work  in  hand  himself  and 
proceeded  steadily  with  it.  In  the  autumn  of  1535  he  sent 
letters  to  a  number  of  South  German  towns,  addressed  to 
preachers  and  magistrates — to  Augsburg,  Strasburg,  Ulm, 
and  Esslingen.  He  proposed  a  meeting  or  conference,  at 
which  they  might  learn  to  know  each  other  better,  and  see 
what  was  to  be  borne  with,  what  complied  with,  and  what 
winked  at.  He  wished  nothing  more  ardently  than  to  be 
permitted  to  end  his  life,  now  near  its  close,  in  peace,  charity, 
and  unity  of  spirit  with  his  brethren  in  the  faith.  They 
also  should  '  continue  thus,  helping,  praying,  and  striving 
that  such  unity  might  be  firm  and  lasting,  and  that  the 
devil's  jaws  might  be  stopped,  who  had  gloried  hugely  in 
their  want,  of  unity,  crymg  out  "Ha!  ha!  I  have  won."  ' 
These  letters  plainly  show  how  glad  was  Luther  now  to  see 
the  good  cause  so  advanced,  and  to  be  able  to  further  it  yet 
more.  Both  in  them  and  in  his  correspondence  with  the 
Elector  about  the  proposed  meeting,  he  advised  not  to  en- 
list too  many  associates,  that  there  might  be  no  restless, 
obstinate  heads  among  them,  to  spoil  the  affair.  He  knew 
of  such  among  his  own  adherents — men  who  went  too  far 
for  him  in  the  zeal  of  dogma. 

The  conference  was  appointed  to  be  held  at  Eisenach  in 
the  fohowing  spring,  on  May  14,  the  fourth  Sunday  after 
Easter.  Luther's  state  of  health  would  not  permit  him  to 
undertake  a  journey  to  any  distant  place  or  in  the  winter. 
Just  at  this  time,  moreover,  in  March  1536,  he  had  been 
tormented  for  weeks  by  a  new  malady,  an  intolerable  pain 
in  the  left  hip.  Later  on,  he  told  one  of  his  friends  that 
he  had  with  Christ  risen  from  the  dead  at  Easter  (April  16), 


470  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS, 

for  he  had  been  so  ill  at  that  time,  that  he  firmly  believed 
that  his  time  had  come  to  depart  and  be  with  Christ,  for 
which  he  longed. 

The  South  Germans  readily  accepted  the  invitation. 
The  Strasbm-gers  passed  it  on  to  the  Swiss,  and  specially 
desired  that  Biillinger  from  Zurich  might  take  part  in  the 
conference.  The  Swiss,  however,  who  had  received  no  dhect 
invitation  from  Wittenberg,  declined  the  proposal;  they 
wished  to  adhere  simply  to  their  own  articles  of  faith,  which 
they  had  just  formulated  anew  in  the  so-called  *  First 
Helvetian  Confession,'  and  which  had  expressly  acknow- 
ledged at  least  a  spiritual  nutriment  to  be  offered  in  the 
Sacramental  symbols.  They  could  not  see  anything  to  be 
gained  by  personal  discussion.  But  they  requested  that  their 
Confession  might  be  kindly  shown  to  Luther,  and  Bullinger 
sent  him  special  greetings  from  himself  and  the  Evangelical 
Churches  of  Switzerland.  The  preachers  who  were  sent  as 
deputies  to  Eisenach  from  the  various  South  German  towns, 
journeyed  byway  of  Frankfort-on-the-Mam,  where  just  then 
the  Schmalkaldic  allies  were,  assembled.  On  May  10  they 
went  on,  eleven  in  number,  to  Eisenach ;  they  represented 
the  communities  of  Strasburg,  Augsburg,  Memmingen, 
Ulm,  Esslingen,  Eeutlingen,  Fürfeld,  and  Frankfort. 

At  the  last  moment  the  whole  success,  nay  even  the 
very  plan  of  the  conference,  was  imperilled.  Melancthon  had 
already  been  anxious  and  despondent,  fearing  a  fresh  and 
violent  outburst  of  the  controversy  as  a  consequence  of  the 
impending  discussion.  Luther  had  just  been  freshly  excited 
against  the  Zwinglians  by  a  writing  found  among  the  papers 
Zwingli  left  behind  him,  and  which  Bullinger  had  published 
with  high  eulogiums  upon  the  author,  and  also  by  a  corre- 
spondence that  had  just  appeared  between  Zwingli  and 
Oecolampadius.  Butzer,  however,  and  his  friends  still 
wished  to  maintain  their  intimacy  with  these  Zwinglians, 
and  this  correspondence  was  prefaced  by  an  introduction 
from   his   own   pen.      Furthermore,   letters   had   reached 


THE  COUNCIL  AND  INTERNAL    UNION.        471 

Luther,  representing  that  the  people  in  the  South  German 
towns  were  not  really  taught  the  true  Bodily  Presence  in 
the  Sacrament.  In  addition  to  this,  severe  after-effects  of 
his  old  illness  again  attacked  him,  rendering  him  unfit  to 
travel  to  Eisenach.  Accordingly,  on  May  12  he  wrote  to 
the  deputies  begging  them  to  journey  as  far  as  Grimma, 
where  he  would  either  appear  in  person,  or,  if  too  weak, 
could  at  all  events  more  easily  communicate  by  writing  to 
them  and  his  friends. 

The  deputies,  however,  came  straight  to  him  at  Witten- 
berg. In  Thuringia  they  w^ere  joined  by  the  pastors 
Menius  of  Eisenach  and  Myconius  of  Gotha,  two  of 
Luther's  friends  who  with  him  were  honestly  desirous  of 
unity.  The  constant  personal  intercourse  kept  up  during 
the  journey  served  greatly  to  lu'omote  a  mutual  under- 
standing. 

Thus  on  Sunday,  May  21,  they  arrived  at  length  at 
Wittenberg. 

The  next  day,  the  two  Strasburgers,  Capito  and  Butzer, 
held  a  preliminary  interview  with  Luther,  whose  physical 
weakness  made  any  lengthy  negotiations  very  difficult. 
He  expressed  to  them  candidly  and  emphatically  his  desire, 
repeated  again  and  again,  that  they  should  declare  them- 
selves at  one  with  him.  He  would  rather,  however,  leave 
matters  as  they  had  been,  than  enter  into  a  union  which 
might  be  only  feigned  or  artificial,  and  must  make  bad 
worse.  With  regard  to  the  Zwinglian  publications,  Butze-r 
answered  that  he  and  his  friends  were  in  no  way  responsible 
for  them,  and  that  the  preface,  which  consisted  of  a  letter 
from  himself,  had  been  printed  without  his  knowledge  and 
consent.  With  regard  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Sacrament, 
the  only  question  now  left  to  decide  was  whether  the  un- 
worthy and  godless  communicants  verily  partook  of  the 
Lord's  Body.  Luther  maintained  that  they  did  :  it  was  to 
him  the  necessary  consequence  of  a  Bodily  Presence,  such 
as  took  place  simply  by  virtue  of  the  institution  and  sure 


472  LUTHER  AND    THE   PROTESTANTS. 

promise  of  Christ,  by  which  faith  must  abide  in  full  trust 
and  belief.  Butzer  expressed  his  decided  assent  to  the 
doctrine  of  objective  Presence  and  presentation ;  but  the 
actual  reception  of  the  Lord's  Body,  as  offered  from  above, 
he  could  only  concede  to  those  communicants  who,  at 
least  through  some  faith,  placed  themselves  in  an  in- 
ward spiritual  relation  to  that  Body  and  accepted  the  institu- 
tion of  Christ,  not  to  those  who  were  simply  there  with  their 
bodies  and  bodily  mouths.  To  enable  one  to  speak  of  a  par- 
taking of  the  Body,  he  was  satisfied  with  that  faith  which 
was  not  exactly  the  right  faith  of  the  heart,  and  was  con- 
nected with  moral  unworthiness,  so  that  such  guests  ate  to 
their  own  condemnation.  He  thus  acknowledged  that  the 
unworthy,  but  not  the  man  wholly  devoid  of  faith,  could  par- 
take of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ.  Luther,  therefore, 
could  feel  assured  that  Butzer  agreed  with  him  in  rejecting 
every  view  which  held  that,  in  the  Sacrament,  the  Body  of 
Christ  was  present  only  in  the  subjective  representation  and 
the  imagination,  or  that  faith  there  rose  up  out  of  itself,  so 
to  speak,  to  the  Lord,  instead  of  merely  grasping  at  what  was 
offered,  and  thereby  being  quickened  and  made  strong. 
But  it  is  unmistakable,  that  Luther  and  Butzer  conceived 
in  different  ways  both  the  manner  of  the  Presence  and 
the  manner  of  partaking, — each  of  these,  indeed,  in  a 
mysterious  sense  and  one  very  difficult  to  be  defined. 
Luther  could  scarcely  have  failed  to  observe  the  difference, 
which  still  remained  between  them,  and  the  defect  from 
which,  according  to  his  own  convictions,  the  doctrine  of  the 
South  Germans  still  suff'ered.  The  question  was,  whether 
he  could  look  beyond  this,  and  whether  in  the  doctrine  for 
which  he  had  fought  so  keenly,  he  should  be  able  and  will- 
ing to  distinguish  between  what  was  essential  on  the  one 
hand,  and  what  was  non-essential  or  less  essential  on  the 
other. 

On  the  Tuesday  all  the  deputies  assembled  at  his  house, 
together   with   his   Wittenberg   friends,   and   Menius   and 


THE   COUNCIL   AND  INTERNAL    UNION        473 

Myconius.  Butzcr  having  spoken  on  the  deputies'  behalf, 
Luther  conferred  \vith  them  separately,  and  after  they  had 
declared  their  unanimous  concurrence  ^Yith  Butzer,  he  with- 
drew with  his  friends  into  another  room  for  a  private  consul- 
tation. On  his  return,  he  declared,  on  behalf  of  himself  and 
bis  friends,  that,  after  having  heard  from  all  present  their 
answers  and  statement  of  belief,  they  were  agreed  with 
them,  and  welcomed  them  as  beloved  brethren  in  the  Lord. 
As  to  the  objection  they  had  about  the  godless  partakers,  if 
they  confessed  that  the  unworthy  received  with  the  other 
communicants  the  Body  of  Christ,  they  would  not  quarrel 
on  that  point.  Luther,  so  Myconius  tells  us,  spoke  these 
words  with  great  spirit  and  animation,  as  was  apparent 
from  his  eyes  and  his  whole  countenance.  Capito  and 
Butzer  could  not  refrain  from  tears.  All  stood  with  folded 
hands  and  gave  thanks  to  God. 

On  the  following  days  other  points  were  discussed,  such 
as  the  significance  of  infant  baptism,  and  the  practice  of 
confession  and  absolution,  as  to  which  an  understanding 
was  necessary,  and  was  arrived  at  without  any  difficulty. 
The  South  Germans  had  also  to  be  reassured  about  some 
individual  forms  of  worship,  unimportant  in  themselves, 
and  which  they  found  to  have  been  retained  from  Catholic 
usage  in  the  Saxon  churches. 

On  the  Thursday  the  proceedings  were  interrupted  by 
the  festival  of  the  Ascension.  Luther  preached  the  evening 
sermon  of  that  day  on  the  text,  '  Go  ye  into  all  the  world, 
and  preach  the'gospel  to  every  creature.'  Myconius  relates 
of  this  sermon,  '  I  have  often  heard  Luther  before,  but  it 
seemed  to  me  then  as  if  not  he  alone  were  speaking,  but 
heaven  was  thundering  in  the  name  of  Christ.' 

On  Saturday  Butzer  and  Capito  delivered  themselves  of 
their  commissions  on  behalf  of  the  Swiss.  Luther  declared 
after  reading  the  Confession  which  they  brought,  that 
certain  expressions  in  it  were  o])jectionable,  but  added  a 
wish  that  the  Strasburgers  would  treat  with  them  further 


474  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

on  the  subject,  and  the  latter  led  him  to  hope  that  the 
communities  in  Switzerland,  weary  of  dis^Dute,  desii'ed 
unity. 

The  spirit  of  brotherly  union  received  a  touching  and 
beautiful  expression  on  the  Sunday  in  the  common  celebra- 
tion of  the  Sacrament,  and  in  sermons  preached  by  Alber 
of  Eeutlingen  in  the  early  morning,  and  by  Butzer  m  the 
middle  of  the  day. 

The  next  morning.  May  29,  the  meeting  concluded 
with  the  signing  of  the  articles  which  Melancthon  had 
been  commissioned  to  draw  up.  They  recognised  the  re- 
ceiving of  Christ's  Body  at  the  Sacrament  by  those  who  '  ate 
unw^orthily,'  without  saying  anything  about  the  faithless. 
The  deputies  who  signed  their  names  declared  their  common 
acceptance  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  and  the  Apology. 
This  formula,  however,  was  only  to  be  published  after  it  had 
received  the  assent  of-  the  communities  whom  it  concerned, 
together  with  their  pastors  and  civil  authorities.  *  We  must 
be  careful,'  said  Luther,  '  not  to  raise  the  song  of  victory 
prematurely,  nor  give  others  an  occasion  for  complammg 
that  the  matter  was  settled  without  their  knowledge  and 
in  a  corner.'  Luther  himself  began  on  the  same  Monday 
to  write  letters,  inviting  assent  from  different  quarters  to 
their  proceedings.  Among  his  own  associates,  at  any  rate, 
his  intimate  friend  Amsdorf  at  Magdeburg  had  not  been  so 
conciliatory  as  himself:  Luther  waited  eight  days  before 
informing  him  of  the  result  of  the  conference. 

Thus,  then,  unity  of  confession  was  established  for  the 
German  Protestants,  apart  from  the  Swiss,  for  none  of  the 
Churches  which  had  been  represented  at  the  meeting  re- 
fused their  assent.  Luther  now  advanced  a  step  towards 
the  Swiss  by  writing  to  the  burgomaster  Meyer  at  Basle, 
who  was  particularly  anxious  for  union,  and  who  returned 
him  a  very  friendly  and  hopeful  answer.  Butzer  sought  to 
work  with  them  further  in  the  same  direction.  But  they 
could  not  reconcile  themselves  to  the  Wittenberg  articles. 


THE   COUNCIL  AND  INTERNAL    UNION.        47S 

They— that  is  to  say,  the  magistrates  and  clergy  of  Zurich, 
Berne,  Basle,  and  some  other  towns— were  content  to  express 
their  joy  at  Luther's  present  friendly  state  of  mind,  together 
with  a  hope  of  future  unity,  and  besought  Butzer  to  inform 
Luther  further  about  their  own  Confession  and  their  objec- 
tions to  his  own.  Butzer  was  anxious  to  do  this  at  a  con- 
vention which  the  Schmalkaldic  allies  appointed  to  meet  at 
Schmalkald,  in  view  of  the  Council  having  been  announced 
to  be  held  m  February  1537. 


^  OF   THE  ^r     > 

univeesityI 


476  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 


CHAPTEK  III. 

NEGOTIATIONS    RESPECTING   A   COUNCIL    AND    UNION   AMONG   THE 

PROTESTANTS    {continuatioji)  : — meeting    at    schmalkald, 

1537. — PEACE     WITH     THE       SWISS. — LUTHER's      FRIENDSHIP 
WITH    THE    BOHEMIAN    BRETHREN. 

A  FEW  days  after  the  Protestants  had  effected  an  agreement 
at  Wittenberg  the  announcement  was  issued  from  Eome  of 
a  Council,  to  be  held  at  Mantua  in  the  following  year.  The 
Pope  already  indicated  with  sufficient  clearness  the  action 
he  intended  to  take  at  it.  He  declared  in  plain  terms  that 
the  Council  was  to  extirpate  the  Lutheran  pestilence,  and 
did  not  even  wish  that  the  corrupt  Lutheran  books  should 
be  laid  before  it,  but  only  extracts  from  them,  and  these 
with  a  Catholic  refutation.  Luther,  therefore,  had  now  to 
turn  his  energies  at  once  in  this  direction. 

He  agreed,  nevertheless,  with  Melancthon  that  the 
invitation  should  be  accepted,  although  the  Elector  John 
Frederick  was  opposed  to  such  a  Council  from  the  very  first. 
It  would  be  better,  Luther  thought,  to  protest  at  the 
Council  itself  against  any  unlawful  or  unjust  proceeding. 
He  hoped  to  be  able  to  speak  before  the  assembly  at  least 
like  a  Christian  and  a  man. 

The  Elector  thereupon  commissioned  him  to  compile 
and  set  forth  the  propositions  or  articles  of  faith,  which, 
according  to  his  conviction,  it  would  be  necessary  to  insist  on 
at  the  Council,  and  directed  Mm  to  call  in  for  this  purpose 
other  theologians  to  his  assistance.  Luther  accordingly 
drew  up  a  statement.  A  few  days  after  Christmas  he  laid 
it  before  his  Wittenberg  colleagues,    and   likewise   before 


FURTHER  RECONCILIATION.  477 

Amsclorf  of  Magdeburg,  Spalatin  of  Altenburg,  and  Agricola 
of  Eisleben.  The  last  named  was  endeavouring  to  exchange 
his  post  at  the  high  school  at  Eisleben,  under  the  Count  of 
Mansfeld,  with  whom  he  had  fallen  out,  for  a  professor's 
chaii*  at  Wittenberg,  which  had  been  promised  him  by  the 
Elector ;  and  now,  on  receiving  his  invitation  to  the  con- 
ference, he  left  Eisleben  for  good  without  permission,  taking 
his  wife  and  child  with  him.  Luther  welcomed  him  as  an 
old  friend  and  invited  him  to  his  house  as  a  guest.  Luther's 
statement  was  unanimously  approved,  and  sent  to  the 
Elector  on  January  3. 

Even  in  this  summary  of  belief,  intended  as  it  was  for 
common  acceptance  and  for  submission  to  a  Council,  Luther 
emphasised,  with  all  the  fulness  and  keenness  peculiar  to 
himself  tliroughout  the  struggle,  his  antagonism  to  Eoman 
Catholic  dogma  and  Churchdom.  Fondly  as  he  clung  at 
that  time  to  reconciliation  among  the  Protestants,  he  saw 
no  possibility  of  peace  with  Eome. 

As  the  first  and  main  article  he  declared  plainly  that 
faith  alone  m  Jesus  could  justify  a  man ;  on  that  point  they 
dared  not  yield,  though  heaven  and  earth  should  fall.  The 
mass  he  denounced  as  the  greatest  and  most  horrible 
abomination,  inasmuch  as  it  was  *  downright  destructive  of 
the  first  article,'  and  as  the  chiefest  of  Papal  idolatries ; 
moreover,  this  dragon's  tail  had  begotten  many  other  kinds 
of  vermin  and  abominations  of  idolatry.  With  regard  to 
the  Papacy  itself,  the  Augsburg  Confession  had  been  content 
to  condemn  it  by  silence,  not  having  taken  any  notice  of  it 
in  its  articles  on  the  essence  and  nature  of  the  Christian 
Church.  Luther  now  would  have  it  acknowledged,  '  that 
the  Pope  was  not  by  divine  right  {jure  divino)  or  by  warrant 
of  God's  Word  the  head  of  all  Christendom,'  that  position 
belonging  to  One  alone,  by  name  Jesus  Christ ;  and, 
furthermore,  *  that  the  Pope  was  the  true  Antichrist,  who 
sets  himself  up  and  exalts  himself  above  and  against  Christ.' 
As  for  the  Council,  he  expected  that  the  Evangelicals  there 


478  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

present  would  have  to  stand  before  the  Pope  himself  and  the 
devil,  who  would  listen  to  nothing,  but  consider  simply  how 
to  condemn  and  kill  them.  They  should,  therefore,  not  kiss 
the  feet  of  their  enemy,  but  say  to  him,  '  The  Lord  rebuke 
thee,  Satan  ! '  (Zach.  iii.  2). 

The  allies  accordingly  were  anxious  to  consult  together 
and  determine  at  Schmalkald  what  conduct  to  pursue  at 
the  Council.  An  imperial  envoy  and  a  Papal  nuncio  wished 
also  to  attend  their  meeting.  The  princes  and  represen- 
tatives of  the  towns  brought  their  theologians  with  them 
to  the  number  of  about  forty  in  all.  The  Elector  John 
Frederick  brought  Luther,  Melancthon,  Bugenhagen,  and 
Spalatin. 

On  January  29  the  Wittenberg  theologians  were  sum- 
moned by  their  prince  to  Torgau.  From  thence  they 
travelled  slowly  by  Grimma  and  Altenburg,  where  they 
were  entertained  with  splendour  at  the  prince's  castles, 
then  by  Weimar,  where,  on  Sunday,  February  4,  Luther 
preached  a  sermon,  and  so  on  to  the  j)lace  of  meeting. 
Luther  had  left  his  family  and  house  in  the  care  of  his 
guest  Agricola.  On  February  7  they  arrived  at  Schmal- 
kald. 

The  theologians  at  first  were  left  unemployed.  The 
members  of  the  convention  only  gi-adually  assembled.  The 
envoy  of  the  Emperor  came  on  the  14th.  Luther  made  up 
his  mind  for  a  stay  there  of  four  weeks.  He  preached  on 
the  9th  in  the  town  church  before  the  prince  himself. 
The  church  he  found,  as  he  wrote  to  Jonas,  so  large 
and  lofty,  that  his  voice  sounded  to  him  like  that  of  a 
mouse.  During  the  first  few  days  he  enjoyed  the  leisure 
and  rejoiced  in  the  healthy  air  and  situation  of  the  place. 

He  was  already  suffering,  however,  from  the  stone, 
which  had  once  before  attacked  him.  A  medical  fi'iend 
ascribed  it  partly  to  the  dampness  of  the  inns  and  the 
sheets  he  slept  in.  However,  the  attack  passed  off  easily 
this  time,  and  on  the  14th  he  was  able  to  tell  Jonas  that  he 


FURTHER  RECONCILIATION.  479 

was  better.  But  lie  grew  very  tired  of  the  idle  time  at 
Schmalkald.  He  said  jokingly  about  the  good  entertain- 
ment there,  that  he  and  his  friends  were  living  with  the 
Landgrave  Philip  and  the  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg  like  beggars, 
who  had  the  best  bakers,  ate  bread  and  drank  wine  with 
tbe  Niirembergers,  and  received  their  meat  and  fish  from 
the  Elector's  court.  They  had  the  best  trout  in  the  world, 
but  they  were  cooked  in  a  sauce  with  the  other  fish ;  and 
so  on. 

The  Elector  soon  applied  to  him  for  an  opinion  as  to 
takmg  part  in  the  Council,  which  Luther  again  recom- 
mended should  not  be  bluntly  refused.  A  refusal,  he  said, 
would  exactly  please  the  Pope,  who  wished  for  nothing  so 
much  as  obstacles  to  the  Council ;  it  was  for  this  reason 
that,  in  speaking  of  the  extirpation  of  heresy,  he  held  up 
the  Evangehcals  as  a  '  bugbear,'  in  order  to  frighten  them 
from  the  project.  Good  people  might  likewise  object, 
on  the  ground 'that  the  troubles  with  the  Turks  and  the 
Emperor's  engagement  in  the  war  with  France,  were  made 
use  of  by  the  Evangelicals  to  refuse  the  Council,  whilst  in 
reality  the  knaves  at  Piome  were  reckoning  on  the  Turkish 
and  French  wars  to  prevent  the  Council  from  coming  to 
pass. 

Luther  now  received  through  Butzer  the  communica- 
tions from  Switzerland,  together  with  a  letter  from  Meyer, 
the  burgomaster  of  Basle.  To  the  latter  he  sent  on  the  17th 
of  the  month  a  cheerful  and  friendly  reply.  He  did  not 
wish  to  induce  him  to  make  any  further  explanations  and 
promises,  but  liis  whole  mind  was  bent  upon  mutual  for- 
giveness, and  bearing  with  one  another  in  patience  and 
gentleness.  In  this  spirit  he  earnestly  entreated  Meyer  to 
work  with  him.  '  Will  you  faithfully  exhort  your  people,' 
he -said,  'that  they  may  all  help  to  quiet,  soften,  and 
promote  the  matter  to  the  best  of  their  power,  that  they 
may  not  scare  the  birds  at  roost.'  He  promised  also,  for 
his  part,  *  to  do  his  utmost  in  the  same  direction.' 


48o  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

This  same  day,  however,  Luther's  malady  returned ;  he 
eonehided  his  letter  with  the  words,  '  I  cannot  write  now 
all  I  would,  for  I  have  been  a  useless  man  all  day,  owing  to 
this  painful  stone.'  The  next  day,  Sunday,  when  he 
preached  a  powerful  sermon  before  a  large  congregation, 
the  malady  became  much  worse,  and  a  week  followed  of 
violent  pain,  during  which  his  body  swelled,  he  was  con- 
stantly sick,  and  his  weakness  generally  increased.  Several 
doctors,  including  one  called  in  from  Erfurt,  did  their 
utmost  to  relieve  him.  '  They  gave  me  physic,'  he  said 
afterwards,  'as  if  I  were  a  great  ox.'  Mechanical  con- 
trivances were  employed,  but  without  effect.  '  I  was 
obliged,'  he  said,  '  to  obey  them,  that  it  might  not  look  as 
if  I  neglected  my  body.' 

His  condition  a2")peared  desperate.  With  death  before 
his  eyes,  he  thought  of  his  arch-enemy  the  Pope,  who  might 
triumph  over  this,  but  over  whom  he  felt  certain  of  victory 
even  in  death.  '  Behold,'  he  cried  to  God,  '  I  die  an  enemy 
of  Thy  enemies,  cursed  and  banned  by  Thy  foe,  the  Pope. 
May  he,  too,  die  under  Thy  ban,  and  both  of  us  stand  at 
Thy  judgment  bar  on  that  day.'  The  Elector,  deeply 
moved,  stood  by  his  bed,  and  expressed  his  anxiety  lest 
God  might  take  away  with  Luther  His  beloved  Word. 
Luther  comforted  him  by  saying  that  there  w^ere  many 
faithful  men  who,  by  God's  help,  w^ould  become  a  wall  of 
strength ;  nevertheless,  he  could  not  conceal  from  the 
prince  his  apprehension  that,  after  he  was  gone,  discord 
would  arise  even  among  his  colleagues  at  Wittenberg.  The 
Elector  promised  him  to  care  for  his  wife  and  children  as 
his  own.  Luther's  natural  love  for  them,  as  he  afterwards 
remarked,  made  the  prospect  of  parting  very  hard  for  him 
to  bear.  To  his  sorrowing  friends  he  still  was  able  to  be 
humorous.  When  Melancthon,  on  seeing  him,  began  to 
cry  bitterly,  he  reminded  him  of  a  saying  of  their  friend, 
the  hereditary  marshal,  Hans  Loser,  that  to  drink  good 
beer  was  no  art,  but  to  drink  sour  beer,  and  then  continued, 


FURTHER  RECONCILIATION.  481 

in  the  words  of  Job,  '  What,  shall  we  receive  good  at  the 
hand  of  God,  and  shall  we  not  receive  evil '?  '  And  again  : 
'The  wicked  Jews,'  he  said,  'stoned  Stephen;  my  stone, 
the  villain  !  is  stoning  me.'  But  not  for  an  instant  did  he 
lose  his  trust  in  God  and  resignation  to  His  will.  When 
afraid  of  going  mad  with  the  pain,  he  comforted  himself 
with  the  thought  that  Christ  was  his  wisdom,  and  that 
God's  wisdom  remained  immutable.  Seeing,  as  he  did,  the 
devil  at  work  in  his  torture,  he  felt  confident  that  even  if 
the  devil  tore  him  to  pieces  Christ  would  revenge  His 
servant,  and  God  would  tear  the  devil  to  pieces  in  return. 
Only  one  thing  he  would  fain  have  prayed  his  God  to  grant 
—that  he  might  die  in  the  country  of  his  Elector ;  but  he 
was  willing  and  ready  to  depart  whenever  God  might 
summon  him.  Upon  being  seized  wdth  a  fit  of  vomiting 
he  sighed,  *  Alas,  dear  Father,  take  the  little  soul  into  Thy 
hand  ;  I  will  be  grateful  to  Thee  for  it.  Go  hence,  thou 
dear  little  soul,  go,  in  God's  name  !  ' 

At  length  an  attempt  was  actually  made  to  remove  him 
to  Gotha,  the  necessary  medical  appliances  being  not  pro- 
curable at  Schmalkald.  On  the  26tb  of  the  month  the  Erfurt 
physician,  Sturz,  drove  him  thither,  together  with  Bugen- 
hagen,  Spalatin,  and  Myconius,  in  one  of  the  Elector's  car- 
riages. Another  carriage  followed  them,  with  instruments 
and  a  pan  of  charcoal,  for  warming  cloths.  On  driving  off, 
Luther  said  to  his  friends  about  him,  '  The  Lord  fill  you  with 
His  blessing,  and  with  hatred  of  the  Pope.' 

The  first  day  they  could  not  venture  farther  than  Tam- 
bach,  a  few  miles  distant,  the  road  over  the  mountains 
being  very  rough.  The  jolting  of  the  carriage  caused  him 
intolerable  torture.  But  it  effected  what  the  doctors  could 
not.  The  following  night  the  pain  was  terminated,  and  the 
feeling  of  relief  and  recovery  made  him  full  of  joy  and  thank- 
fulness. A  messenger  w^as  sent  at  once,  at  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  with  the  news  to  Schmalkald,  and  Luther  himself 
wrote  a  letter  to  his  '  dearly-loved  '  Melancthon.     To  his 

1 1 


482  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

wife  he  wrote  saying,  '  I  have  been  a  dead  man,  and  had 
commended  you  and  the  little  ones  to  God  and  to  our  good 
Lord  Jesus.  ...  I  grieved  very  much  for  your  sakes.' 
But  God,  he  went  on  to  say,  had  worked  a  miracle  with 
him ;  he  felt  like  one  newly-born ;  she  must  thank  God, 
therefore,  and  let  the  little  ones  thank  their  heavenly 
Father,  without  whom  they  would  assuredly  have  lost  their 
earthly  one. 

But  on  the  28th  already,  after  his  safe  arrival  at  Gotha, 
he  suffered  so  severe  a  relapse  that  during  that  night  he 
thought,  from  his  extreme  weakness,  that  his  end  was  near. 
He  then  gave  to  Bugenhagen  some  last  dkections,  which 
the  latter  afterwards  committed  to  writing,  as  the  *  Confes- 
sion and  Last  Testament  of  the  Venerable  Father.'  Herein 
Luther  expressed  his  cheerful  conviction  that  he  had  done 
rightly  in  attacking  the  Papacy  with  the  Word  of  God. 
He  begged  his  *  dearest  Philip '  (Melancthon)  and  other 
colleagues  to  forgive  anything  in  which  he  might  have 
offended  them.  To  his  faithful  Kate  he  sent  words  of 
thanks  and  comfort,  saying  that  now  for  the  twelve  years 
of  happiness  which  they  had  spent  together,  she  must 
accept  this  sorrow.  Once  more  he  sent  greetings  to  the 
preachers  and  burghers  of  Wittenberg.  He  begged  his 
Elector  and  the  Landgrave  not  to  be  disturbed  by  the 
charges  made  against  them  by  the  Papists  of  having 
robbed  the  property  of  the  Church,  and  recommended  them 
to  trust  to  God  in  their  labours  on  behalf  of  the  gospel. 

The  next  morning,  however,  he  was  again  better  and 
stronger.  Butzer,  who  in  regard  to  unity  of  confession  and 
his  relations  with  the  Swiss  had  not  been  able  to  have  any 
further  conversation  with  Luther  at  Schmalkald,  had  at  once, 
on  receiving  the  good  news  from  Tambach,  gone  straight  to 
Luther  at  Gotha,  accompanied  by  the  preacher  Wolfhart 
from  Augsburg.  Luther,  notwithstanding  his  suffering,  now 
discussed  with  them  this  matter,  so  important  in  his  eyes. 
As  an  honest  man,  to  whom  nothing  was  so  distasteful 


FURTHER  RECONCILIATION.  483 

as  '  dissimulation,'  he  earnestly  warned  them  against  all 
'crooked  ways.'  The  Swiss,  in  ease  he  died,  should  he 
referred  to  his  letter  to  Meyer  ;  should  God  allow  him  to 
live  and  hecome  strong,  he  would  send  them  a  written 
statement  himself. 

While,  however,  he  was  still  at  Gotha,  the  crisis  of  his 
illness  passed,  and  he  was  relieved  entirely  of  the  cause  of 
his  suffering.  The  journey  was  continued  cautiously  and 
slowly,  and  a  good  halt  was  made  at  Weimar.  From  Wit- 
tenherg  there  came  to  nurse  him  a  niece,  who  lived  in  his 
house :  prohahly  Lene  Kaufmann,  the  daughter  of  his 
sister.  To  his  wife  he  wrote  from  Tamhach,  telling  her 
that  she  need  not  accept  the  Elector's  offer  to  drive  her  to 
him,  it  heing  now  unnecessary.  On  March  14  he  arrived 
again  at  his  home.  His  recovery  had  made  good  progress, 
though,  as  he  wrote  to  Spalatin,  even  eight  days  afterwards 
his  legs  could  hardly  support  him. 

Meanwhile  the  conference  of  the  allies  at  Schmalkald 
resulted  in  their  deciding  to  decline  the  Papal  invitation  to 
the  Council.  They  informed  the  Emperor,  in  reply,  that 
the  CcfLincil  which  the  Pope  had  in  view  was  something 
very  different  to  the  one  so  long  demanded  hy  the  German 
Diets ;  what  they  wanted  was  a  free  Council,  and  one  on 
German,  not  Italian  territory. 

AYith  regard  to  Luther's  articles,  which  he  had  drawn 
up  in  view  of  a  Council,  they  saw  no  occasion  to  occupy 
themselves  with  their  consideration.  To  their  official  Con- 
fession of  Augshurg,  which  had  formed  among  other  things 
the  groundwork  and  charter  of  the  Pieligious  Peace, 
and  to  the  Apology,  drawn  up  hy  Melancthon  in  reply 
to  the  Catholic  'Refutation,'  they  desired,  however,  now 
to  add  a  protest  against  the  authority  and  the  Divine 
right  of  the  Papacy.  Melancthon  prepared  it  in  the  true 
spirit  of  Luther,  though  in  a  calmer  and  more  moderate 
tone  than  was  usual  with  his  friend.  The  majority  of  the 
theologians  present  at  Schmalkald  testified  their  assent  to 


484  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

Luther's  articles  by  subscribing  their  names.  Luther  had 
his  statement  printed  the  following  year.  The  Emperor, 
on  account  of  the  war  with  the  Turks  and  the  renewal  of 
hostilities  with  France,  had  no  time  to  think  of  compelling 
the  allies  to  take  part  in  a  Council,  and  was  quite  content 
that  no  Council  should  be  held  at  all.  Whether  the  Pope 
himself,  as  Luther  supposed,  counted  secretly  on  this 
result,  and  was  glad  to  see  it  happen,  may  remain  a  matter 
of  uncertainty. 

At  Schmalkald  the  seal  was  now^  set  upon  the  Concord, 
which  had  been  concluded  the  previous  year  at  Wittenberg, 
and  then  submitted  for  ratification  to  the  different  German 
princes  and  towns,  the  formula  there  adopted  being  now 
signed  by  all  the  theologians  present,  and  the  agreement 
of  the  princes  to  abide  by  it  being  duly  announced. 
Towards  the  Swiss,  who  declined  to  waive  their  objections 
to  the  Wittenberg  articles,  Luther  maintained  firmly  the 
standpoint  indicated  in  his  letter  to  Meyer.  Thus,  in  the 
following  December  he  w^rote  himself  to  those  evangelical 
centres  in  Switzerland  from  which  Butzer  had  brought  him 
the  communication  to  Gotha  ;  w^iile  the  next  year,  in  May 
1538,  he  sent  a  friendly  reply  to  a  message  from  Bullinger, 
and  again  in  June  he  wrote  once  more  to  the  Swiss,  on 
receiving  an  answer  from  them  to  his  first  letter.  His 
constant  wish  and  entreaty  w^as  that  they  should  at  least 
be  friendly  to,  and  expect  the  best  of  one  another,  until  the 
troubled  waters  w^ere  calmed.  He  fully  acknowledged  that 
the  Swiss  were  a  very  pious  people,  who  earnestly  wished 
to  do  what  was  right  and  proper.  He  rejoiced  at  this, 
and  hoped  that  God,  even  if  only  a  hedge  obstructed, 
would  help  in  time  to  remove  all  errors.  But  he  could  not 
ignore  or  disregard  that  on  which  no  agreement  had  yet 
been  arrived  at ;  and  he  w^as  right  in  supposing,  and  said 
so  openly  to  the  Swiss,  that  upon  their  side,  as  well  as 
upon  his  own,  there  were  many  who  looked  upon  unity  not 
only  with  displeasure  but  even  with  suspicion.     He  himself 


FURTHER  RECOXCILIATION.  485 

had  constantly  to  explain  misinterpretations  of  his  doctrine, 
and  he  did  so  with  composure.  He  had  never,  he  said, 
taught  that  Christ,  in  order  to  he  present  at  the  Sacrament, 
comes  down  from  heaven  ;  hut  he  left  to  Divine  omnipo- 
tence the  manner  in  which  His  Body  is  verily  given  to  the 
guests  at  His  tahle.  But  he  must  guard  himself,  on  the 
other  hand,  against  the  notion  that,  with  the  attitude  he 
now  adopted,  he  had  renounced  his  former  doctrine.  And 
with  this  doctrine  he  held  firmly  to  the  conception  of  a 
Presence  of  Christ's  Body  in  the  Sacrament  different  to 
and  apart  fi'om  that  Presence  for  purely  spiritual  nourish- 
ment on  which  the  Swiss  now  insisted.  When  Bullinger 
expressed  his  surprise  that  he  should  still  talk  of  a  dif- 
ference in  doctrine,  he  gave  up  offering  any  more  explana- 
tions on  the  suhject ;  and  the  Swiss,  for  their  part,  after 
his  second  letter,  made  no  further  attempt  to  effect  a  more 
perfect  agreement.  Luther's  desu-e  was  to  keep  on  terms 
of  peace  and  friendship  with  them,  notwithstanding  the 
difference  still  notoriously  existing  hetween  hoth  parties. 
On  this  very  account  he  was  loth  to  rake  up  the  difference 
again  hy  further  explanations.  By  acting  thus  he  helieved 
he  should  hest  promote  an  ultimate  understanding  and 
unity,  which  was  still  the  ohject  of  his  hopes. 

So  far,  therefore,  during  the  years  immediately  follow- 
ing the  death  of  Zwingli,  success  had  attended  the  efforts 
to  heal  the  fatal  division  which  separated  from  Luther  and 
the  great  Lutheran  community  those  of  evangelical  sympa- 
thies in  Switzerland  and  the  South  Germans,  who  were 
more  or  less  suhject  to  their  influence,  and  which  had 
excited  the  minds  on  both  sides  with  such  violence  and 
passion.  So  far  Luther  himself  had  laboured  to  promote 
this  result  with  uprightness  and  zeal ;  he  had  conquered 
much  suspicion  once  directed  against  himself,  he  had 
sought  means  of  peace ;  he  had  restrained  the  disturl)ing 
zeal  of  his  own  friends  and  followers,  such  as  Amsdorf  or 
Oslander  at  Nuremberg. 


486  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

We  must  not  omit  finally  to  mention,  as  an  important 
event  of  these  years  and  a  testimony  to  Luther's  disposition 
and  sentiments,  the  friendly  relations  now  formed  between 
himself  and  the  so-called  Bohemian  and  Moravian  Brethren. 
We  have  already  had  occasion  to  notice,  after  the  Leip- 
zig disputation  in  1519,  and  again,  in  particular,  after 
Luther's  return  from  the  Wartburg,  an  approach,  which 
promised  much  but  was  only  transitory,  between  Luther 
and  the  large  and  powerful  brotherhood  of  the  Bohemian 
Utraquists,  who,  as  admirers  of  Huss  and  advocates  for 
giving  the  cup  to  the  laity,  had  freed  themselves  from  the 
dominion  of  Eome.  Quietly  and  modestly,  hut  with  a  far 
more  penetrating  endeavour  to  restore  the  purity  of  Chris- 
tian life,  the  small  communities  of  the  Moravian  Brethren 
had  multiplied  by  the  side  of  the  Hussites,  and  had  patiently 
endured  oppression  and  persecution.  Luther  afterwards 
declared  of  them,  how  he  had  found  to  his  astonishment — a 
thing  unheard  of  under  the  Papacy — that,  discarding  the 
doctrines  of  men,  they  meditated  day  and  night,  to  the 
best  of  their  ability,  on  the  laws  of  God,  and  were  well  versed 
in  the  Scriptures.  It  was  principally,  however,  as  Luther 
himself  seems  to  indicate,  the  commands  of  Scripture,  in 
the  strict  and  faithful  fulfilment  of  which  they  sought  for 
true  Christianity — with  special  reference  to  the  commands 
of  Jesus,  as  expressed  by  Him  in  particular  in  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  and  to  those  precepts  which  they  found  in 
their  patterns,  the  oldest  Apostolic  communities — that  en- 
grossed their  attention.  With  strict  discipline,  in  con- 
formity with  these  commands,  they  sought  to  order  and 
sanctify  their  congregational  life.  But  of  Luther's  doctrine 
of  salvation,  announced  by  him  mainly  on  the  testimony 
of  St.  Paul,  or  of  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith 
alone,  they  had  as  yet  no  knowledge.  They  taught  of  the 
righteousness  to  which  Christians  should  attain,  as  did 
Augustine  and  the  pious,  practical  theologians  of  the 
middle   ages.     Henee  they  were  wanting  also  in  freedom 


FURTHER  RECONCILIATION.  487 

in  their  conception  of  moral  life,  and  of  those  worldly 
duties  and  blessings  to  which,  according  to  Luther,  the 
Christian  spirit  rose  by  the  powder  of  faith.  They 
shunned  rather  all  worldly  business  in  a  manner  that 
caused  Luther  to  ascribe  to  them  a  certain  monastic 
character.  Their  priests  lived,  like  Catholics,  in  celibacy. 
Another  peculiarity  of  their  teaching  was,  that  in  striving 
after  a  more  spiritual  conception  of  life,  and  under  the 
influence  of  the  writings  of  the  great  Englishman  Wicliife, 
which  were  largely  disseminated  among  them,  they  re- 
pudiated the  Catholic  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation,  nor 
w^ould  even  allow^  such  a  Presence  of  Christ's  Body  as  was 
insisted  on  by  Luther.  They  maintained  simply  a  sacra- 
mental, spiritual,  effectual  presence  of  Christ,  and  dis- 
tinguished from  it  a  substantial  Presence,  which  His  Body, 
they  declared,  had  in  heaven  alone. 

With  these,  too,  as  with  the  Utraquists,  Luther  became 
more  closely  acquainted  soon  after  his  return  from  the 
Wartburg.  The  evangelical  preacher,  Paul  S])eratu8,  who 
was  then  temporarily  working  in  Moravia,  wrote  to  him 
about  these  zealous  friends  of  the  gospel,  among  whom, 
however,  he  found  much  that  was  objectionable,  especially 
their  doctrine  of  the  Sacrament.  They  themselves  sent 
Luther  messages,  letters,  and  writings.  Luther,  who,  in 
addition  to  the  Catholic  theory,  had  also  to  combat  doubts 
as  to  the  Keal  Presence  of  Christ's  Body  at  the  Sacra- 
ment, turned  in  1523,  in  a  treatise  *  On  the  Adoration  of 
the  Sacrament,  &c.,'  to  oppose  the  declarations  of  the 
Brethren  on  this  subject,  and  then  proceeded  to  draw  their 
attention  to  other  points  on  which  he  was  unable  to  agree 
with  them,  in  the  mildest  form  and  with  warm  acknowledg- 
ments of  their  good  qualities,  such  as,  in  particular,  then- 
strict  requirements  of  Christian  moral  conduct,  which  in 
his  own  circle  he  could  not  possibly  expect  to  see  as  yet  ful- 
ülled.    They  and  Lucas,  theii-  elder,  however,  took  umbrage 


488  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS, 

at  his  remarks  ;  Lucas  published  a  reply,  whereupon  Luther 
quietly  left  them  to  go  tlieu-  own  way. 

While  Butzer  now  was  prosecuting  with  success  his 
attempts  at  union,  the  Brethren  renewed  their  overtures  to 
Luther.  They  offered  him  fresh  explanations  about  the 
doctrines  in  dispute,  and  these  explanations  he  was  content 
to  treat  as  consistent  with  the  truth  which  he  himself 
maintained,  though  they  differed  even  from  his  own  actual 
statements,  not  only  in  form  but  in  substance.  For  example, 
they  distinguished  between  the  Presence  of  Christ's  Body 
in  the  Sacrament  and  His  existence  in  heaven,  by  describing 
only  the  latter  as  a  Bodily  existence.  Practically,  the 
theory  of  the  Brethren,  which,  however,  was  by  no  means 
cleaily  defined,  agreed  most  with  that  represented  afterwards 
by  Calvin  But  Luther  saw  in  it  nothing  more  that  was 
essential,  such  as  would  necessitate  further  controversy,  or 
deter  him  from  friendly  intercourse  with  these  pious-minded 
people.  At  their  desire  he  published  two  of  their  statements 
of  belief  in  1533  and  1538  with  prefaces  from  his  own  pen. 
In  these  prefaces  he  dwelt  particularly  on  the  striking  differ- 
ences, as  regards  Church  usages  and  regulations,  between 
their  congregations  and  his  own.  But  these  differences,  he 
said,  ought  in  no  way  to  prevent  their  feUowship ;  a  dif- 
ference of  usages  had  always  existed  among  Christian 
Churches,  and  with  the  difference  of  times  and  circum- 
stances, was  unavoidable.  Nor  did  he  withhold  a  certain 
sanction  and  approbation  of  the  dignity  with  which  the 
Brethren  continued  to  invest  the  state  of  celibacy,  while 
refusing,  however,  to  give  that  sanction  the  force  of  a  law. 

Among  the  Brethren  their  gifted  and  energetic  elder 
John  Augusta  laboured  to  promote  an  alliance  with  Luther 
and  the  German  Reformation.  He  repeatedly  a^Dpeared 
(and  again  in  1540)  in  person  at  Wittenberg. 

Thus  on  all  sides,  wherever  the  Evangelical  word  pre- 
vailed, Luther  saw  the  bonds  of  union  being  firmly  tied. 


489 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OTHER  LABOURS  AND  TRANSACTIONS,  1535-39. — ARCHBISHOP 
ALBERT  AND  SCHÖNITZ. AGRICOLA. 

Amidst  these  important  and  general  affairs  of  the  Church, 
bringing  daily  fresh  labours  and  fresh  anxieties  for  Luther — 
labours,  ho\Yever,  which,  in  spite  of  his  bodily  sufferings,  he 
undertook  with  his  old  accustomed  energy — his  strength,  as 
in  previous  years  we  have  observed  with  reference  to  his 
preaching,  now  no  longer  sufficed  as  before  for  the  regular 
work  of  his  caUing.  In  his  official  duties  at  the  university 
the  Elector  himself,  anxiously  concerned  as  he  was  for  its 
progress,  would  have  spared  him  as  muc]^  as  possible.  For 
these  he  arranged,  in  1536,  an  ample  stipend.  In  his 
announcement  of  this  step  he  solemnly  declared:  *  The 
merciful  God  has  plenteously  and  graciously  vouchsafed  to 
let  His  holy,  redeeming  Word,  through  the  teaching  of  the 
reverend  and  most  learned,  our  beloved  and  good  Martin 
Luther,  doctor  of  Holy  Scripture,  be  made  known  to  all 
men  in  these  latter  days  of  the  world  with  true  Christian 
understanding,  for  their  comfort  and  salvation,  for  which 
we  give  Him  praise  and  thanks  for  ever;  and  has  made 
known  also,  in  addition  to  other  arts,  the  Latin,  Greek,  and 
Hebrew  languages,  through  the  conspicuous  and  rare  ability 
and  industry  of  the  learned  Philip  Melancthon,  for  the 
furtherance  of  the  right  and  Christian  comprehension  of 
Holy  Scripture.'  To  each  of  these  two  men  he  now  gave 
a  hundred  gulden  as  an  addition  to  his  salary  as  professor, 
which  in  Luther's  case  had  hitherto  amounted  to  two 
hundred   gulden.     At  the  same  time  he  released  Luther 


490  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

from  the  obligation  of  lecturing,  and,  indeed,  from  all  his 
other  duties  at  the  university. 

Luther  began,  however,  this  year  a  new  and  important 
course  of  lectures — the  exposition  of  the  Book  of  Genesis, 
which,  according  to  his  wont,  he  illustrated  with  a  copious 
and  valuable  commentary  on  the  chief  points  of  Christian 
doctrine  and  Christian  life.  They  progressed,  however,  but 
slowly  and  with  many  interruptions;  sometimes  a  whole 
year  was  occupied  with  only  a  few  chapters.  The  work  was 
not  completed  until  1545.  They  were  the  last  lectures  he 
delivered. 

In  the  office  of  preacher,  which  he  continued  to  fill 
voluntarily  and  without  emolument,  he  undertook  again, 
after  he  had  returned  from  Schmalkald,  and  had  gained 
fresh  strength  and,  at  least,  a  temporary  recovery  from  his 
recent  illness,  labours  at  once  beyond  and  more  arduous  than 
his  ordinary  duties.  He  resumed,  in  short,  the  duties  of 
Bugenhagen,  who  was  given  leave  of  absence  till  1539  to 
visit  Denmark,  foi'#he  purpose  of  organising  there,  under  the 
new  king  Christian  HI.,  the  new  Evangelical  Church.  He 
preached  regularly  on  week-days,  in  addition  to  his  Sunday 
sermons;  continuing  his  discourses,  as  Bugenhagen  had 
done,  though  with  many  interruptions,  on  the  Gospels  of 
St.  Matthew  and  St.  John.  The  chancellor  Brück  wrote  to 
the  Elector  from  Wittenberg  on  August  27  :  '  Doctor  Martm 
preaches  in  the  parish  church  thrice  a  week ;  and  such 
mightily  good  sermons  are  they,  that  it  seems  to  me,  as 
everyone  is  saying,  there  has  never  been  such  powerful 
preaching  here  before.  He  points  out  in  particular  the  errors 
of  the  Popedom,  and  multitudes  come  to  hear  him.  He 
closes  his  sermons  with  a  prayer  against  the  Pope,  his 
Cardinals  and  Bishops,  and  for  our  Emperor,  that  God  may 
give  him  victory  and  deliver  him  from  the  Popedom.' 

Among  his  hterary  labours  he  again  took  in  hand  in  1539 
his  German  translation  of  the  Bible — the  most  important 
work,  in  its  way,  of  all  his  life — and  persevered  with  intense 


ARCHBISHOP  ALBERT  AND  AG  RICO  LA.  491 

and  unremitting  industry,  in  order  to  revise  it  thoroughly 
for  a  new  edition,  which  was  puljhshed  at  the  end  of  two 
years.  For  this  work  he  assembled  around  him  a  circle  of 
learned  colleagues,  whose  assistance  he  succeeded  in  obtain- 
ing and  w^hom  he  regularly  consulted.  These  w^re  Melanc- 
thon,  Jonas,  Bugenhagen,  Crueiger,  Matthew  Aurogallus, 
professor  of  Hebrew,  and  afterwards  the  chaplain  Eörer, 
who  attended  to  the  corrections.  From  outside  also  some 
joined  them,  such  as  Ziegler,  the  Leipzig  theologian,  a  man 
learned  in  Hebrew.  Luther's  younger  friend  Mathesius, 
who  had  been  Luther's  guest  in  1540,  relates  of  these  meet- 
mgs  how  '  Doctor  Luther  came  to  them  with  his  old  Bible  in 
Latin  and  his  new  one  in  German,  and  besides  these  he 
had  always  the  Hebrew  text  with  him.  Philip  (Melancthon) 
brought  with  him  the  Greek  text,  Dr.  Kreuziger  (Crueiger) 
besides  the  Hebrew,  the  Chaldaic  Bible  (the  translation 
or  paraphrase  in  use  among  the  ancient  Jews) ;  the  pro- 
fessors had  with  them  theii*  Eabbis  (the  Eabbinical 
waitings  of  the  Old  Testament).  Each  one  had  previously 
armed  himself  with  a  knowledge  of  the  text,  and  compared 
the  Greek  and  Latin  with  the  Jewish  version.  The  president 
then  propounded  a  text,  and  let  the  opinions  go  round ; — 
speeches  of  wondrous  truth  and  beauty  are  said  to  have 
been  made  at  these  sittings.' 

In  other  respects  Luther's  literary  activity  w\as  chiefly 
devoted  to  the  great  questions  remaining  to  be  dealt  with 
at  a  Council.  In  1539,  the  year  after  his  publication  of  the 
Schmalkaldic  Articles,  appeared  a  larger  treatise  from  his 
pen  *  On  Councils  and  Churches,'  one  of  the  most  exhaus- 
tive of  his  writings,  and  important  to  us  as  showing  how 
firmly  and  confidently  his  idea  of  the  Christian  Church,  as 
a  community  of  the  faithful,  was  maintained  amidst  all  the 
practical  difticulties  which  events  prepared.  He  complains 
of  the  substitution  of  the  l)lind,  unmeaning  word  *  Church  ' 
— and  that  even  in  the  Catechism  for  the  young— for  the 
Greek  word  in  the  New  Testament  *  Ecclesia,'  as  the  name 


492  LUTHER  AND    THE   PROTESTANTS. 

of  the  community  or  assembly  of  Christian  people.  Much 
misery,  he  said,  had  crept  in  mider  that  word  Clmrch,  from 
its  being  understood  as  consisting  of  the  Pope  and  the 
bishops,  priests,  and  monks.  The  Christian  Chmxh  was 
simply  the  mass  of  pious  Christian  people,  who  believed  in 
Christ  and  were  endowed  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  Who  daily 
sanctified  them  by  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  by  absolving 
and  purifying  them  therefrom. 

Of  Luther's  love  for  his  German  mother-language,  and 
of  the  services  he  rendered  it,  so  conspicuously  shown  by 
these  his  writings,  and  especially  by  his  persevering  indus- 
try in  his  translation  of  the  Bible,  we  are  further  reminded 
by  a  request  he  made  in  a  letter  of  March  1535,  to  his 
friend  Wenzeslaus  Link  at  Nuremberg.  He  suddenly  in 
that  letter  breaks  off  from  the  Latin — which  was  still  the 
customary  language  of  correspondence  between  theologians 
— and  continues  in  German,  with  the  words,  *  I  will  speak 
German,  my  dear  Herr  Wenzel,'  and  then  begs  his  friend 
to  make  his  servant  collect  for  him  all  the  German  pictures, 
rhymes,  books,  and  ballads  that  had  recently  been  pub- 
lished at  Nuremberg,  as  he  wished  to  familiarise  himself 
more  with  the  genuine  language  of  the  people.  Luther 
himself  made  a  goodly  collection  of  German  proverbs.  His 
original  manuscript  which  contained  them  was  inherited 
by  a  German  family,  but  unfortunately  it  was  bought 
about  twenty  years  ago  in  England.  There  was  j^ublished 
also  at  Wittenberg,  in  1537,  a  small  anonymous  book  on 
German  names,  written  (unquestionably  by  Luther)  in 
Latin,  and  therefore  intended  for  students.  It  contains,  it 
is  true,  many  strange  mistakes,  but  it  is,  nevertheless,  a 
proof  of  the  interest  he  took  in  such  studies,  and  is  interest- 
ing as  a  maiden  effort  in  this  field  of  national  learning. 

In  the  regular  government  and  legal  administration  of 
his  Saxon  Church,  Luther  did  not  occupy  any  post  of  office. 
When  in  1539  a  Consistory  was  established  at  Wittenberg 
for  the  Electoral  district,  and  afterwards,  indeed,  for  the 


ARCHBISHOP  ALBERT  AND  AGRICOLA.  493 

regulation  of  marriage  and  discipline,  lie  did  not  become  a 
member  ;  lie  was  certainly  never  called  upon  or  qualified 
to  take  part  in  the  exercise  of  such  a  jurisdiction.  And 
yet  this  also  was  done  ^Yith  his  concurrence,  and  in  cases 
of  difficulty  he  was  resorted  to  for  his  advice.  All  Church 
questions  of  public  interest  continued,  with  this  exception,  to 
occupy  his  independent  and  influential  discussion.  And 
even  the  moral  evils  on  the  domain  of  civil,  municipal  and 
social  life,  to  which  Luther  at  the  beginning  of  the  lieforma- 
tion  appeared  desii'ous  of  extending  his  preaching  of  reform, 
so  far,  at  least,  as  that  preaching  represented  a  general  call 
and  exhortation,  but  which  he  afterwards  seemed  to  discard 
altogether  as  something  foreign  to  his  mission,  never 
wholly  faded  from  his  purview,  or  ceased  to  enlist  his 
active  interest.  He  wrote  again  in  1539  against  usury, 
much  as  he  had  written  at  an  earlier  period,  remarking  to 
his  h-iends  that  his  book  would  prick  the  consciences  of 
petty  usurers,  but  that  the  big  swindlers  would  only  laugh 
at  him  in  their  sleeves.  And  in  publishing  his  Schmal- 
kaldic  Articles  he  briefly  refers  again  in  his  preface  to  the 
'  countless  matters  of  importance '  which  a  genuine  Chris- 
tian Council  would  have  to  mend  in  the  temporal  condition 
of  mankind — such  as  the  disunion  of  princes  and  states,  the 
usury  and  avarice,  which  had  spread  like  a  deluge  and  had 
become  the  law,  and  the  sins  of  unchastity,  gluttony, 
gambling,  vanity  in  di'ess,  disol^edience  on  the  part  of 
subjects,  servants,  and  workmen  of  all  trades ;  as  also  the 
removal  of  peasants,  &c.  Nor  at  the  same  time  was  he 
less  prompt  to  interfere  on  behalf  of  individuals  who  were 
suft'ering  fi'om  want  and  injustice,  either  by  his  humble  in- 
tercession with  their  lords,  or  with  the  sharp  sword  of  his 
denunciation. 

It  was  Luther's  indignation  and  zeal  on  such  an  occa- 
sion that  caused  now  his  irremediable  rupture  with  the 
Archbishop,  Cardinal  Albert,  and  induced  him  to  attack 
that  magnate  as  recklessly  as  he  did ;  for  the  Cardinal  had 


494  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

hitherto  been   always  disposed  to  treat   him  with  a  cer- 
tain respect ;  and  Luther,   on  his  side,  had  refrained  at 
least  from  any  open  exhibition  of  hostility.     The  imme- 
diate cause  of  this  rupture  was  a  judicial  murder,  perpe- 
trated against  one  John  Schönitz  (or  Schanz)  of  Halle,  on 
the  river  Saale.     This  man  had  for  years  had  the  charge, 
as  the  confidential  servant  of  the  Archbishop,  of  the  public 
and  even  the  private  funds  which  his  master  required  for 
his  stately  palaces,  his  luxury,  and  his  sensual  enjoyments, 
refined  or  coarse,  legitimate  or  illegitimate  ;  and  had  ac- 
tually  lent   him  large  sums.     The   Estates  of  the  Arch- 
bishopric complained  of  the  demands  made  on  them  for 
money,  and  rightly  suspected  that  the  funds  supplied  were 
improperly    and   dishonestly   misappropriated.      Schönitz 
grew  alarmed  on  account  of  the  clandestine   '  practices ' 
w^iich  he  w^as  carrying  on  for  his  master.     The  latter,  how- 
ever, assured  him  of  his  protection.     But  when  the  Estates 
refused  to  grant  any  more  subsidies  until  a  proper  account 
was  laid  before  them,  he  basely  sacrificed  his  servant  in 
order  to  extricate  himself  from  his  embarrassment.     For 
deceptions  alleged  to  have  been  practised  against  himself,  he 
had  Schönitz  arrested,  and  confined,  in  September  1534,  in 
the  Castle  of  Giebichenstein.     In  vain  Schönitz  demanded  a 
public  trial  by  impartial  judges ;  in  vain  did  the  Imperial 
Court  of  Justice  give  judgment  in  his  favour.     A  second 
judgment  of  the  court  was  answered  by  Albert's  directing 
the  prisoner,  who  w-as  a  citizen  of  Halle  and  sprung  from 
an   old  local   family,   to  be   tried   on  June   21,  1535,   at 
Giebichenstein,  by  a  peasant  tribunal  hastily   summoned 
from  the  surrounding  villages,  for  the  trial  merely,  as  the 
rumour  ran  in  Halle,  of  a   horse-stealer.     The  unhappy 
prisoner  was  allowed  no  regular  defence,  and  no  counsel. 
An  admission  of  guilt  w^as  extorted  from  him  by  the  rack, 
and  he  w^as  summarily  sentenced  to  death.     Time  was  only 
allowed  him  to   say  to  the  bystanders  that  he  confessed 
himself  a  sinner  in  the  sight  of  God,  but  that  he  had  not 


ARCHBISHOP  ALBERT  AND  AG  RICO  LA.  495 

deserved  this  fate.  He  was  quickly  strung  up  on  the 
gallows,  where  his  corpse  remained  hanging  till  the  wind 
blew  it  down  in  February  1537.  Albert  took  possession  of 
his  property.  And  this  was  done  by  the  supreme  prince 
of  the  Eoman  Church  in  Germany,  who  played  the  part  of 
a  modern  Maecenas  with  regard  to  art  and  science. 

Whilst  now  the  justices  of  the  town  of  Halle  were  pro- 
testing against  this  treatment  of  their  fellow-townsman  to  the 
Archbishop,  who  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  their  remonstrance, 
and  Antony,  the  brother  of  the  murdered  man,  exerted 
himself  in  vain  to  vindicate  his  honour  and  the  rights  of 
their  family,  Luther  w^as  drawn  into  the  affair  by  the  fact 
that  one  of  his  guests,  Ludwig  Rabe,  was  threatened  with 
punishment  by  Albert,  for  expressions  he  let  fall  soon  after 
the  deed  was  committed.  Luther  thereupon  wrote  several 
times  to  Albert  himself,  and  told  him  openly  he  was  a 
murderer,  and,  for  his  squandering  of  Church  property, 
deserved  a  gallows  ten  times  higher  than  the  Castle  of 
Giebichenstein.  He  was  restrained,  however,  from  taking 
further  steps  by  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  and  other  of 
xilbert's  influential  relatives,  wdio  appealed  to  John  Frederick 
on  his  behalf,  whilst  Albert  sought  to  make  a  cheap  com- 
pensation to  the  family  of  the  mm-dered  man,  or  at  least 
pretended  to  do  so. 

When,  however,  a  young  Humanist  poetaster  at  Witten- 
berg, named  Lemnius— properly  Lemchen — actually  glori- 
fied the  Archbishop  in  verse,  or,  as  Luther  put  it,  '  made  a 
saint  of  the  devil,'  and  at  the  same  time  vilified  some  men 
and  women  at  Wittenberg,  Luther  read  aloud  from  the 
pulpit,  in  1538,  a  short  indictment,  couched  in  the  plainest 
possible  terms,  against  the  shameless  libeller,  as  also  against 
the  Ai-chbishop  whom  he  glorified;  and  this  indictment 
soon  appeared  in  print.  And  now  he  no  longer  refrained 
from  taking  up  the  cause  of  Schönitz  in  a  pamphlet  of 
some  length.  When  the  Duke  of  Prussia  endeavoured  once 
more  in  a  fi'iendly  way  to  dissuade  him  from  his  purpose, 


496  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

for  the  honour  of  the  house  of  Brandenburg,  he  replied, 
*  Wicked  sons  have  sprung  from  the  noble  race  of  David, 
and  princes  ought  not  to  disgrace  themselves  by  unprincely 
vices.'  In  the  pamphlet  to  his  opening  he  declared  that 
a  stone  was  lying  upon  his  heart  which  was  called  *  De- 
liver them  that  are  drawn  unto  death,  and  those  that  are 
ready  to  be  slain'  (Prov.  xxiv.  11).  He  denounced  the 
contempt  and  denial  of  justice  of  which  the  Archbishop 
was  guilty,  and  at  the  same  time  boldly  exposed  the  real 
objects  of  those  private  expenses  which  the  Archbishop, 
together  with  his  servant,  had  incurred,  and  of  which  the 
latter  was  naturally  unable  to  give  an  account— least  of 
all,  those  that  ministered  to  his  carnal  appetites,  such  as 
his  establishment  at  Morizburg  in  Hahe.  He  himself, 
says  Luther,  does  not  judge  the  Cardinal;  he  is  simply 
the  bearer  of  the  sentence  pronounced  by  the  great  Judge 
in  heaven.  To  those  who  might  perhaps  have  taken 
exception  to  his  words  he  says,  '  I  sit  here  at  Wittenberg, 
and  ask  my  most  gracious  lord  the  Elector  for  no  further 
favour  or  protection  than  what  is  given  to  all  alike.' 
Albert  found  it  more  prudent  to  keep  silent. 

But  what  disturbed  and  grieved  Luther  more  than 
anything  else  during  this,  the  closing  chapter  of  his  life, 
was  the  bitter  experience  he  had  yet  to  make  in  his  own 
religious  community,  nay,  amidst  his  most  intimate  com- 
panions and  friends. 

The  way  of  life— in  other  words,  the  way  of  saving 
faith— was  now  rediscovered  and  clearly  brought  to  light ; 
and,  as  Luther  said,  a  truly  moral  hfe  should  be  the  con- 
sequence. And  great  pains  were  taken  to  stamp  this  new 
truth  clearly  and  distinctly  on  doctrine,  and  to  guard 
against  new  errors  and  perversions.  Differences,  however, 
now  arose  among  those  who  had  hitherto  worked  so  loyally 
together  for  the  establishment  of  the  faith— a  beginning 
of  those  doctrinal  disputes  which  after  Luther's  death  be- 
came so  disastrous  to  his  Church.     Again  and  again  Luther 


ARCHBISHOP  ALBERT  AND   AG  RICO  LA. 


497 


bitterly  complained  of  the  moriil  wrongs  and  scandals 
which  proved  that  the  faith,  however  widely  its  confession 
had  spread  through  Germany,  was  far  from  living  in  its 
purity  and  strength  in  the  hearts  of  men,  and  bearing  the 
expected  fruit.  Only  his  own  conviction,  his  own  faith  was 
never  shaken  by  this  result.  It  must  needs  be,  as  Christ 
Himself  had  said,  that  offences  must  come  ;  and,  in  the 
words  of  St.  Paul  (1  Cor.  xi.  19),  '  there  must  be  also 
heresies,'  and  false  teachers  and  deceivers  must  arise. 

We  have  seen  above  how^  cordially  Luther  welcomed 
Agricola  back  at  Wittenberg  after  throwing  up  his  appoint- 
ment at  Eisleben.  He  obtained 
for  him  from  the  Elector 
in  1537  an  ample  salary,  to 
enable  him  to  fill  the  long- 
coveted  office  of  teacher  at  the 
university,  and  be  a  preacher 
as  well.  It  soon  became 
known  that  Agricola  per- 
sisted in  maintaining  that 
doctrine  of  repentance  \\\ 
defence  of  which  he  had  at- 
tacked Melancthon  at  the  first 
visitation  of  chm*ches  in  the 
Saxon  Electorate.  He  had 
been  accused  of  this  at  Eis- 
leben, and  Count  Albert  of  Mansfeld,  whose  service  he 
had  quitted  w^ith  rudeness  and  discontent,  denounced 
him  as  a  restless  and  dangerous  fellow.  And  now  at  Wit- 
tenberg also  Agricola  had  some  sermons  printed,  and  some 
theses  circulated,  embodying  a  statement  of  his  peculiar 
doctrine.  Luther  considered  it  his  duty  to  refute  these, 
and  he  did  so  from  the  pulpit,  but  without  naming  their 
author. 

The  proclamation  of  God's  law,  so  Agricola  now  taught, 
was  no  necessary  part  of  Christianity,  as  such,  nor  of  the 

K  K 


Fig.  44.-  Agricola.  (From  a  mi- 
niature portrait  by  Cranach,  in 
the  University  Album  at  Witten- 
berg, 1531.) 


498  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

way  of  salvation  prepared  and  revealed  by  Christ.  The 
Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God,  our  Saviour,  this  alone  should 
be  i)roclaimed,  and  operate  in  touching  the  hearts  of  men 
and  exposing  the  true  character  of  their  sins  as  sin- 
fulness against  the  Son  of  God.  In  this  way  he  sought 
to  give  full  effect  to  the  fundamental  evangelical  doctrine, 
that  the  grace  of  God  alone  had  power  to  save  through  the 
joyful  message  of  Christ.  The  personal  vanity,  however, 
which  was  the  chief  weakness  of  this  gifted,  intellectual,  and 
fairly  eloquent  man,  and  which  was  now  increased  by  the 
dissatisfaction  it  had  caused  at  Eisleben,  displayed  itself 
further  in  the  assertion  of  his  eccentricities  of  dogma. 
Moreover,  he  was  far  from  clear  in  his  first  principles,  and 
while  maintaining  his  tenets  he  was  unwilling  to  stake  too 
much  on  his  own  account,  and  yet  refused  actually  to 
abandon  them. 

He  came  at  first  to  an  understanding  with  Luther  by 
offering  an  explanation  which  the  latter  deemed  satisfactory, 
but  he  then  proceeded  to  revert  to  his  peculiar  tenets  in  a 
new  publication.  Luther  now  launched  a  sharp  reply 
against  these  antinomian  theses,  as  well  as  against  others, 
which  went  much  further,  and  whose  origin  is  unknown. 
He  found  wanting  in  Agricola  that  earnest  moral  apprecia- 
tion of  the  law,  and  of  the  moral  demands  made  of  us  by 
God,  whereby  the  heart  of  the  sinner,  as  he  himself  had 
experienced,  must  first  be  bruised  and  broken,  and  thus 
oiDened  to  receive  the  word  of  grace,  before  that  word  can 
truly  renew,  revive,  and  sanctify  it.  But  together  with  Agri- 
cola's  tenets  he  then  placed  the  others,  betraying  an  equally 
frivolous  estimate  of  the  real  natm-e  of  those  demands 
and  of  the  duties  theylentailed,  as  evidence  of  one  tendency 
and  one  character,  since  Agricola,  indeed,  taught  like  them, 
that  the  good  willed  by  God  in  His  Commandments  was  ful- 
filled in  Christians  by  the  simple  fact  of  their  belief  in  Christ, 
and  as  the  fruit  of  His  word  of  grace.  Thus  it  came  about 
that  this  tendency  which  Luther  found  represented  in 
Agricola,   stood   out    before  him   in    all  its   compass   and 


^ 


^/M^ 


ARCHBISHOP  ALBERT  AND  AGRIGÖLA.  499  '{  SIT 

with  its  extremest  and  most  alarming  conseqi^enccs,  and 
called  forth  the  boldest  exercise  of  his  zeal.  It  grieved  him 
sorely,  nevertheless,  to  have  to  enter  into  this  dispute  with 
his  old  friend.  *  God  knows,'  he  said,  *  what  trials  this 
l)usiness  has  prepared  for  me  ;  I  shall  have  died  of  sheer 
anxiety  before  I  have  brought  my  theses  against  him 
(Agricola)  to  the  light.' 

At  the  instance,  how^ever,  of  the  Elector,  who  valued 
Agricola,  another  reconciliation  was  brought  about.  Agricola 
humbled  himself ;  he  even  authorised  his  great  opponent 
to  draw  up  a  retractation  in  his  name,  and  Luther  did  this 
in  a  manner  very  damaging  to  Agricola,  in  a  letter  to  his 
former  colleague  and  opponent  at  Eisleben,  Caspar  Güttel. 
Agricola  thereupon  received  a  place  in  the  newly- formed 
consistory.  But  even  now  he  could  not  refrain  from  fresh 
utterances  wiiich  betrayed  his  old-  opinions.  Luther's 
confidence  in  him  was  thus  destroyed  for  ever :  he  spoke 
with  indignation,  pain,  and  scorn  of  *  Grikel  (Agricola),  the 
false  man.'  The  latter  at  length  complained  to  the  Elector 
against  Luther  for  having  unjustly  aspersed  him.  The 
Elector  testified  to  him  his  displeasure ;  Luther  gave  a  sharp 
answer  to  the  charge,  and  his  prince  made  further  inquiries 
into  the  matter  of  complaint.  Agi-icola  finally  snatched  at 
a  means  of  escape  offered  by  his  summons  to  Berlin, 
whither  he  had  been  called  as  a  preacher  of  distinction  by 
the  Elector  Joachim  IL,  who  was  a  convert  to  the  Eeforma- 
tion.  In  August  1540  he  left  Wittenberg.  He  sent  thither 
fi-om  Berlin  another  and  fully  satisfactory  retractation  in 
order  to  retain  his  official  appointment.  But  Luther's 
friendship  with  him  w^as  broken  for  ever. 

In  another  quarter  also  Melancthon  had  been  charged 
with  deviating  in  certain  statements  from  the  path  of  right 
doctrine. 

We  know  already  how  his  anxiety  about  the  dangers 
caused  by  the  separation  from  the  great  Catholic  Church 
seemed  to  tempt  him  to  indulge  in  questionable  concessions, 

kk2 


500  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

and  how  it  was  Luther  himself,  with  a  disposition  so  dif- 
ferent to  Melancthon's,  who  nevertheless  held  firmly  to 
his  trust  in  his  friend  and  fellow-labourer,  particularly  dur- 
ing the  Diet  of  Augsburg.  And,  indeed,  subsequent  events 
brought  this  tendency  to  concession  more  fully  into  notice. 
Certain  peculiarities  now  asserted  themselves  in  Melanc- 
thon's independent  opinions,  with  regard  both  to  theology 
and  practical  life,  which  distinguished  his  mode  of  teaching 
from  that  of  Luther.  He  who,  again  and  again,  in  the 
Augsburg  Confession  and  the  Apology,  as  also  in  the  system 
of  evangelical  theology  which  in  his  '  Loci  Communes '  he 
was  the  first  to  elaborate,  had  expounded  with  full  and 
active  conviction  the  fundamental  evangelical  truth  of  a 
justifying  and  saving  Faith,  was  anxious  also — more  so, 
even,  than  many  strict  confessors  of  that  doctrine — to  have 
the  whole  field  of  moral  improvement  and  the  fruits  of 
morality  which  were  necessary  to  preserve  that  faith,  esti- 
mated at  their  proper  value.  And  further,  with  respect  to 
God's  will  and  the  operation  of  His  grace,  whereby  alone  the 
sinner  could  obtain  inward  conversion  and  faith,  he  wished 
to  make  this  depend  entirely  on  man's  own  will  and  choice, 
so  that  the  blame  might  not  appear  to  lie  with  God  if  the 
call  to  salvation  remained  fruitless,  and  a  temptation 
thereby  be  offered  to  many  to  indulge  in  carelessness  or 
despondency.  Li  addition  to  this,  he  differed  unmistak- 
ably from  Luther  in  his  doctrine  of  the  Sacrament.  For, 
though  it  was  he  who  at  Augsburg  in  1530  had  flatly  re- 
jected the  Zwinglians,  still  his  historical  researches  im- 
pressed him  with  the  belief,  that,  in  reality,  as  indeed  the 
Zwinglians  maintained,  not  Augustine  himself,  among 
the  ancients,  had  taught  the  Eeal  Bodily  Presence  after 
the  manner  of  Luther,  or  even  of  Eoman  Catholicism ;  and 
his  own  theological  opinion  induced  him  at  least  to  satisfy 
himself  with  more  or  less  obscure  propositions  about  the 
communion  of  the  Saviour  Who  died  for  us  with  the  guests 
at  His  table,  without  any  fixed  or  clear  declarations  about 


ARCHBISHOP  AI.BERT  AND  AGRICOLA.  %Q\ 

the  substantiality  of  the  Body.  This  appears,  for  instance, 
in  his  '  Loci  Communes,'  although  in  the  formula  of  the 
Wittenberg  Concord  of  153G  he  \Yent  farther,  together  with 
Luther. 

On  the  first  point  above-mentioned,  a  priest  named 
Cordatus,  a  strict  adherent  of  Luther,  had  raised  a  protest 
against  him  in  1536.  But  the  opponent  whom  Melancthon 
chiefly  feared  in  this  respect  was  the  theologian  Amsdorf, 
who  was  not  only  an  old  familiar  friend  of  Luther,  but  the 
especial  guardian,  both  then  and  still  more  after  Luther's 
death,  of  Lutheran  orthodoxy.  But  Luther  himself  was 
anxious  to  avoid,  even  in  this  matter,  any  rupture  or  discord 
with  Melancthon.  He  took  great  pains  to  reconcile  the 
difference,  and  knew  also  how  to  keep  silence,  though  with- 
out deviating  from  his  own  strict  standpoint,  or  being  able  to 
overlook  the  pecuharity  of  his  friend's  teaching,  conspicu- 
ously apparent  as  it  was  in  the  new  edition  of  his  book. 

We  are  reminded  by  this,  moreover,  how  Luther,  during 
his  illness  at  Schmalkald  in  1537,  made  no  secret  of  his 
fear  of  a  division  breaking  out  at  Wittenberg  after  his 
death. 


502  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 


CHAPTEE  V. 

LUTHER   AND    THE    PROGEESS   AND    INTERNAL   TROUBLES 
OF   PROTESTANTISM.       1538-1541. 

In  the  great  affairs  of  the  Church,  amid  the  threats  of  his 
enemies  and  in  all  his  dealings  with  them,  Luther  continued 
from  day  to  day  to  trust  quietly  in  God,  as  the  Guider 
of  events,  Who  suffers  none  to  forestall  His  designs,  and 
puts  to  shame  and  rebuke  the  inventions  of  man.  His 
hope  of  external  peace  had  hitherto  been  fulfilled  beyond 
all  expectation.  And  it  had  been  permitted  him  to  see  the 
Eeformation  gain  strength  and  make  further  progress  in 
the  German  Empire.  Indeed,  it  seemed  possible  that  a 
union  might  be  effected  with  those  Catholics  who  had  been 
impressed  with  the  evangelical  doctrine  of  salvation.  These 
were  results  accomplished  by  the  inward  power  of  God's 
Word,  as  hitherto  preached  to  the  people,  under  a  Divine 
and  marvellously  favourable  dispensation  of  outer  relations 
and  events — fruits  as  unexpected  as  they  were  gratifying 
to  Luther.  Great  plans  or  projects  of  his  own,  however, 
were  still  far  from  his  thoughts ;  nor  even  did  the  details 
of  this  historical  development  demand  such  activity  on  his 
part  as  he  had  shown  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  movement. 
And  yet  there  was  no  lack  of  discord,  difficulty,  and  trouble 
within  the  pale  of  the  new  Church  and  amongst  its  members ; 
prospects  of  further,  and  possibly  much  more  serious  dan- 
gers to  be  encountered ;  thoughts  of  sadness  and  disquie- 
tude to  vex  the  soul  of  the  Reformer,  now  aged,  suffering, 
and  weary.  The  goal  of  his  hopes  had  ever  been,  and  still 
remained,  not  indeed  a  victory  to  be  gradually   achieved 


PJ^OGAV£SS  AND  INTERNAL    TROUBLES.         503 

for  his  cause,  perhaps  even  m  his  own  Hfetime,  by  the 
course  of  ecclesiastical  and  political  changes  and  events, 
but  the  end  which  the  Lord  Himself,  according  to  His 
promises,  would  make  of  the  whole  wicked  v/orld,  and  the 
Hereafter  whither  he  was  ever  waiting  to  be  summoned. 

Since  the  Schmalkaldic  allies  had  rejected  the  Emperor 
with  his  invitation  to  a  Council,  the  Eomish  zealots  might 
well  hope  that  Charles  at  length  w^ould  prepare  to  use 
force  against  them.  He  was  not  yet  able  to  bring  his 
quarrel  with  King  Francis  to  a  final  termination ;  but, 
nevertheless,  he  concluded  a  truce  with  him  in  1538  for  ten 
years,  while  at  the  same  time  his  vice-chancellor  Held 
contrived  to  efiect  a  union  of  Roman  Catholic  i^rinces  in 
Germany  in  opposition  to  the  Schmalkaldic  League.  This 
union  was  joined,  in  addition  to  Austria,  Bavaria,  and 
George  of  Saxony,  by  Duke  Henry  of  Brunsw^ick,  the  bitter 
enemy  of  the  Landgrave  Philip.  Already  in  the  spring  of 
that  year  people  at  Wittenberg  talked  of  operations  on  a 
large  scale  ostensibly  directed  against  the  Turks,  but  in 
reality  against  the  Protestants.  Or  at  least  it  was  feared 
that  the  imperial  army,  in  the  event  of  its  defeating  the 
Turks,  might,  as  Luther  expressed  it,  turn  their  spears 
agamst  the  Evangelical  party.  In  this  respect  Luther  had 
no  fears  ;  he  did  not  believe  in  a  victory  over  the  Turks, 
and,  even  in  that  case,  his  opinion  w^as  that  the  imperial 
troops  w^ould  no  more  submit  to  be  made  the  instruments  of 
such  a  policy  than  they  had  done  some  years  before,  after  their 
victory  at  Vienna.  Most  earnestly  he  exhorted  the  Elector, 
for  his  part  at  least,  to  do  his  duty  again  in  the  w^ar  against 
the  Turks,  for  the  sake  of  his  Fatherland  and  the  poor  op- 
pressed people.  On  the  other  hand,  the  right  of  the  Protestant 
States  to  resist  the  Emperor,  if  it  came  to  a  war  of  religion, 
was  one  which  he  now  asserted  without  scruple  or  hesita- 
tion. The  Emperor,  he  said,  in  such  a  w^ar  would  not  be 
Emperor  at  all,  Init  merely  a  soldier  of  the  Pope.  He 
appealed  to  the  fact  that  once  among  the  people  of  Israel 


504  LUTHER  ÄND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

pious  and  godly  men  had  risen  up  against  their  sovereign  ; 
and  the  German  princes  had  additional  rights  over  their 
Emperor,  by  virtue  of  their  constitution.  Finally,  he  rea- 
soned from  the  law  of  nature  itself,  that  a  father  was 
bound  to  protect  his  wife  and  children  from  open  murder  ; 
and  he  likened  the  Emperor,  who  usurped  a  power  noto- 
riously illegal,  to  a  murderer.  For  the  rest,  he  declared,  in  a 
publication  exhorting  the  Evangelical  clergy  to  pray  for 
peace,  that  as  to  whether  the  Papists  chose  to  carry  out 
their  designs  or  not .  he  was  perfectly  indifferent,  in  case 
God  did  not  will  to  work  a  miracle.  His  only  fear  was  lest 
a  war  might  arise,  if  they  did  so,  which  would  never  end, 
and  would  be  the  total  ruin  of  Germany. 

But  the  Emperor  was  less  zealous  and  more  cautious 
than  his  vice-chancellor.  He  sent  another  representative 
to  Germany,  with  instructions  to  prevent  an  outbreak  of 
hostilities.  This  envoy,  in  the  course  of  some  negotiations 
conducted  at  Frankfort  in  April  1539,  agreed  to  an  under- 
standing by  which  the  ecclesiastical  law- suits  hitherto 
instituted  in  the  Imperial  Chamber  against  the  Protestants 
were  suspended,  and  a  number  of  chosen  theologians  of 
piety  and  laymen  were  to  *  arrange  a  praiseworthy  union  of 
Christians '  at  an  assembly  of  the  German  Estates. 

On  April  17,  in  the  midst  of  these  transactions,  Duke 
George  of  Saxony  died  after  a  short  illness.  His  country 
passed  to  his  brother  Henry,  who  in  his  own  smaller 
territory  of  Freiburg  had  for  some  years,  much  to  the  grief 
of  George,  established  the  Evangelical  form  of  worship,  and 
given  shelter  to  the  heretics  banished  by  his  brother.  The 
latter  had  left  no  male  issue  to  succeed  him.  He  had  lost 
two  sons  in  boyhood ;  and  his  son  John,  who  held  the  same 
opinions  as  himself,  had  died  two  years  ago,  when  quite  a 
young  man,  without  leaving  any  children.  His  last  re- 
maining son  Frederick  was  of  weak  intellect,  but  had 
nevertheless  been  married  after  his  brother's  death,  and 
died  a  few  weeks  later.     He  was   soon   followed   by   his 


PROGRESS  AND  INTERNAL    TROUBLES.  505 

unluippy  father  and  sovereign.  Luther  said  of  him  that 
he  had  gone  to  everhisting  lire,  though  he  would  have 
wished  him  hfe  and  conversion.  To  us  his  end  appears 
the  more  tragic  hecause  we  cannot  hut  acknowledge  the 
honest  zeal  with  which,  from  his  own  point  of  view,  he 
endeavoured  to  serve  God,  and  would  willinglj  even  have 
effected  a  reform  in  the  Church;  whilst,  in  spite  of  all 
iiis  severity  against  heretics,  he  never  suffered  himself 
to  he  hurried  into  deeds  of  coarse  violence  and  cruelty. 
There  are  extant  prayers  and  religious  discourses,  composed 
and  written  down  hy  himself.  He  read  the  Bible,  and 
expressed  a  wish,  when  Luther's  translation  appeared,  that 
'  the  monk  would  put  the  whole  Bible  into  German,  and 
then  go  about  his  business.' 

Thus  the  old  and  constantly  revived  quarrel  between 
Luther  and  the  Duke  came  at  length  to  an  end.  The 
Eeformation  was  immediately  introduced  throughout  the 
duchy  by  the  appointment  of  Evangelical  clergy,  by  changes 
in  public  worship,  and  by  a  visitation  of  churches  after  the 
example  of  the  one  in  Electoral  Saxony.  When  Henry 
was  solemnly  acknowledged  sovereign  at  Leipzig,  he  invited 
Luther  and  Jonas  to  be  present.  On  the  afternoon  of 
Whitsunday,  May  24,  1539,  Luther  preached  a  sermon  in 
the  court  chapel  of  that  Castle  of  Pleissenburg,  wdiere  he 
had  once  disputed  before  George  with  Eck,  and  on  the 
following  afternoon  he  preached  in  one  of  the  churches  of 
the  town,  not  venturing  to  do  so  in  the  morning  on  account 
of  his  weak  state  of  health.  He  now  proclaimed  aloud,  in 
his  sermon  on  the  Gospel  for  Whitsunday,  that  the  Church 
of  Christ  was  not  there,  where  men  were  madly  crying 
'  Church  !  Church  ! '  without  the  Word  of  God,  nor  was  it 
with  the  Pope,  the  cardinals,  and  the  bishops;  but  there, 
and  there  only,  where  Christ  was  loved  and  His  Word  was 
kept,  and  where  accordingly  He  dwelt  in  the  souls  of  men. 
He  refrained  from  any  special  reference  to  the  state  of 
things  hitherto  existing  at  Leipzig  and  in  the  duchy,  or  to 


5o6  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

the  change  brought  about  by  God.  But  we  call  to  mind 
the  words  he  had  spoken  in  1532,  '  Who  knows  what  God 
will  do  before  ten  years  are  over  ? '  Very  soon,  indeed,  the 
magnates  of  the  Saxon  court  and  the  nobility,  though 
accepting  the  reformed  faith  of  their  new  sovereign,  gave 
occasion  to  Luther  for  bitter  complaints  of  their  rapacity, 
their  indifference  to  religion,  and  their  improper  and 
tyrannical  usurpations  on  the  territory  of  the  Church. 

In  addition  to  the  Saxon  duchy,  the  Electorate  of 
Brandenburg  was  also  about  to  go  over  to  Protestantism. 
The  Elector  Joachim  I.  adhered  so  strictly  to  the  ancient 
Church,  that  his  wife  Elizabeth,  who  was  evangelically  in- 
clined, had  fled  to  Saxony,  where  she  became  an  intimate 
friend  of  Luther's  household.  But  on  his  death  in  1535, 
his  younger  son  John,  together  with  his  territory,  the  '  Neu- 
mark,' joined  at  once  the  Schmalkaldic  allies.  And  now, 
after  longer  consideration,  his  elder  brother  also,  Joachim  II. 
— a  man  of  quieter  disposition  and  more  attached  to  ancient 
^ays — took  the  decisive  step,  after  an  agreement  with  his 
Estates  and  the  territorial  bishop,  Jagow.  On  November  1, 
1539,  he  received  from  the  latter  publicly  the  Sacrament  in 
both  kinds. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  Emperor  resolved  to  give 
effect  to  the  essential  part  of  the  Frankfort  agreement. 
He  summoned  a  meeting  at  Spire  '  for  the  purpose  of  so 
arranging  matters  that  the  wearisome  dissension  in  religion 
might  be  reconciled  in  a  Christian  manner.'  In  consequence 
of  a  pestilence  which  appeared  at  Spire,  the  assembly  was 
removed  to  Hagenau.  Here  it  was  actually  held  in  June 
1540. 

Meanwhile,  the  most  vigorous  champion  of  Protestantism, 
the  Landgrave  Philip,  took  a  step  which  was  calculated  to 
damage  the  position  of  the  Evangelical  Church  and  to 
embarrass  its  adherents  more  than  anything  which  their 
enemies  could  possibly  attempt.  Philip,  in  his  youth  (1523) 
had  taken  to  wife  a  daughter  of  Duke  George  of  Saxony, 


PROGä:ESS  and  internal    troubles.  507 

but  soon  repented  of  his  ill-considered  resolve,  on  the 
ground  that  she  was  of  an  unamiable  disposition  and  was 
afflicted  with  bodüy  infirmities,  and  accordingly  proceeded 
to  look  elsewhere  for  a  mistress,  after  the  fashion  only  too 
common  at  that  time  with  emperors  and  princes,  but 
scarcely  commented  upon  in  their  case.  The  earnest 
remonstrances  made  to  him  on  religious  grounds  against 
this  step  had  the  effect  of  causing  him  certain  prickings 
of  conscience ;  he  had  not  ventured  on  that  account,  as  he 
now  complained,  to  present  himself  at  the  Lord's  table, 
w^ith  one  single  exception,  since  the  Peasants'  War.  But 
his  conscience  was  not  strong  enough  to  make  him  give  up 
his  evil  ways.  At  last  the  Bible,  which  he  read  indus- 
triously, seemed  to  him  to  provide  a  means  of  outlet  from  his 
difficulty.  He  sheltered  himself,  as  the  Anabaptist  fanatics 
had  done  before  him,  behind  the  Old  Testament  precedent 
of  Abraham  and  other  godly  men,  to  whom  it  had  been  per- 
mitted to  have  more  than  one  wife,  and  pleaded,  moreover, 
that  the  New  Testament  contained  no  prohibition  of  poly- 
gamy. With  all  the  energy  and  stubbornness  of  his  nature, 
he  fastened  on  these  notions  and  clung  to  them,  when,  at  the 
house  of  his  sister,  the  Duchess  Elizabeth,  at  Kochlitz,  he 
chanced  to  meet  and  fall  in  love  with  a  lady  named  Margaret 
von  der  Saal.  She  refused  to  be  his  except  by  marriage.  Her 
mother  even  demanded  of  him  that  Luther,  Butzer,  and 
Melancthon,  or  at  least  two  of  them,  together  with  an 
envoy  of  the  Elector  and  the  Duke  of  Saxony,  should  be 
present  as  witnesses  at  the  marriage.  Philip  himself  found 
the  consent  of  these  divines  and  of  his  most  distinguished 
ally,  John  Frederick,  indispensable.  He  succeeded  first  of 
all  in  gaining  over  the  versatile  Butzer,  and  sent  him  in 
December  1539,  on  this  errand,  to  Wittenberg. 

He  appealed  to  the  strait  that  he  was  in,  no  longer 
able  with  a  good  conscience  to  go  to  war  or  to  punish 
crime,  and  also  to  the  testimony  of  Scripture,  adding, 
very     truly,    that     the    Emperor    and    the    w^orld     were 


So8  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

quite  willing  to  permit  both  him  and  anyone  else  to  live  in 
open  immorality.  Thus,  he  said,  they  were  forbidding 
^Yhat  God  allowed,  and  winking  at  what  He  prohibited. 
In  other  respects,  indeed,  a  double  marriage  was  not  a  thing 
unheard  of  even  by  the  Christendom  of  those  days.  It 
was  said,  for  instance,  of  the  Christian  Emperor  of  Eome, 
Valentinian  II.,  to  whose  case  Philip  himself  appealed,  that 
he  had  been  permitted  to  contract  a  marriage  of  that  kind. 
To  the  Pope  was  ascribed  the  power  to  grant  the  necessary 
dispensation. 

On  December  10  Butzer  brought  back  to  the  Landgrave 
from  Wittenberg  an  opinion  of  Luther  and  Melancthon. 
They  told  him  in  decided  terms  that  it  was  in  accordance 
with  creation  itself,  and  recognised  as  such  by  Jesus,  '  that 
a  man  was  not  to  have  more  than  one  wife ; '  and  they,  the 
preachers  of  God's  Word,  were  commanded  to  regulate 
marriage  and  all  human  things  '  in  accordance  with  their 
original  and  Divine  institution,  and  to  adhere  thereto  as 
closely  as  possible,  while  at  the  same  time  avoiding  to  their 
utmost  all  cause  of  pain  or  annoyance.'  They  urgently 
exhorted  him  not  to  regard  incontinence,  as  did  the  world, 
in  the  light  of  a  trifling  offence,  and  represented  to  him 
plainly  that  if  he  refused  to  resist  his  evil  inclinations,  he 
would  not  mend  matters  by  taking  a  second  wife.  But 
with  all  this  exhortation  and  warning,  they  confessed  them- 
selves bound  to  admit  that  '  what  was  allowed  in  respect  ol 
marriage  bj  the  law  of  Moses  was  not  actually  forbidden  in 
the  gospel ; '  thereby  maintaining,  in  point  of  fact,  that  an 
original  ordinance  in  the  Church  must  be  adhered  to  as  the 
rule,  but  nevertheless  admitting  the  possibility  of  a  dispensa- 
tion under  very  strong  and  exceptional  circumstances.  They 
did  not  say  that  such  a  dispensation  was  applicable  to  the 
case  of  Philip  ;  they  only  wished  him  earnestly  to  reconsider 
the  matter  with  his  own  conscience.  In  the  event,  however, 
of  his  keeping  to  his  resolve,  they  would  not  refuse  him  the 
benefit  of  a  dispensation,  and  only  required  that  the  matter 


PROGRESS  AND  INTERNAL    TROUBLES.  509 

should  be  kept  private,  on  account  of  the  scamlal  and 
possible  abuse  it  would  occasion  if  gen^erally  known. 

Luther  himself  abandoned  afterwards  the  conclusions 
he  drew  from  the  Old  Testament  in  this  respect,  and,  as  a 
consequence,  rejected  the  admissibility  of  a  double  mar- 
riage for  Christians.  Friends  of  the  evangelical  and 
Lutheran  belief  can  only  lament  the  decision  he  pro- 
nounced in  this  matter.  With  that  belief  itself  it  has 
nothing  whatever  to  do.  Instead  of  drawing  his  conclu- 
sions from  the  moral  aspect  of  marriage,  as  amply  attested 
by  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testament,  though  not  indeed 
exactly  expressed,  Luther  on  this  occasion  clung  to  the 
letter,  and  failed,  of  course,  to  find  any  written  declaration 
on  the  point.  At  the  same  time  he  mistook,  in  common 
with  all  the  theologians  of  his  time,  the  difference,  in  point  of 
matured  morality  and  knowledge,  between  the  New  Cove- 
nant and  the  standpoint  of  the  Old,  which  was  that  also 
of  his  best  adherents. 

The  simple  Christian  common  sense  of  the  Elector 
John  Frederick,  and  his  practical  view  of  the  position, 
preserved  him  this  time  from  the  error  into  which  the 
theologians  had  fallen.  He  lamented  that  they  should 
have  given  an  answer,  and  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  business. 

Philip,  however,  rejoiced  at  the  decision,  and  obtained, 
moreover,  his  wife's  consent  to  take  a  second  one. 

In  the  following  March  the  Protestants  held  another 
conference  at  Schmalkald,  with  a  view  of  coming  to  an 
agreement  as  to  their  conduct  in  the  attempts  at  unity  in 
the  Church.  The  Elector  summoned  Melancthon  thither, 
but  excused  Luther,  at  his  own  request.  Philip  then  in- 
vited the  former,  under  some  pretext  or  other,  to  the  neigh- 
bouring Castle  of  Rothenburg  on  the  Fulda.  Arrived  there, 
he  was  o])liged  to  be  a  witness  with  Butzer,  on  March  4, 
1540,  to  the  marriage  of  the  Landgrave  with  Margaret. 
Philip  thanked  Luther  some  weeks  after  for  the  *  remedy  * 


5 TO  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

allowed  Jiim,  without  which  he  should  have  become  *  quite 
desperate.'  He  had  kept  the  name  of  his  second  wife  a 
secret  from  the  Wittenbergers ;  he  now  told  Luther  that 
she  was  a  virtuous  maiden,  a  relative  of  Luther's  own 
wife,  and  that  he  rejoiced  to  have  honourably  become  his 
kinsman. 

Very  soon,  however,  the  new^s  of  this  unheard  of  event 
got  wind.  The  Evangelicals  were  not  less  scandalised 
than  their  enemies,  who  in  other  respects  were  glad  to 
see  the  mischief.  The  first  to  demand  an  explanation  was 
the  Ducal  Court  of  Saxony,  the  Duke  being  so  nearly 
related  to  Philip's  first  wife,  and  on  the  eve  of  a  quarrel 
with  Philip  about  a  claim  of  inheritance.  The  Land- 
grave's whole  position  was  in  jeopardy;  for  bigamy,  by 
the  law  of  the  Empire,  was  a  serious  offence.  Luther 
heard  now  with  indignation  that  the  '  necessity  '  to  which 
Philip  had  thought  himself  justified  in  yielding  had  been 
exaggerated.  The  latter,  on  the  other  hand,  finding  con- 
cealment no  longer  possible,  wished  to  announce  his  mar- 
riage publicly,  and  defend  it.  He  went  so  far  as  to 
imagine  that  even  if  the  allies  should  renounce  him  he 
might  still  procure  the  favour  and  consideration  of  the 
Emperor.  Unpleasant  and  very  painful  discussions  arose 
between  him,  John  Frederick,  and  Duke  Henry  of 
Saxony. 

Meanwhile,  the  day  was  now  approaching  for  the  con- 
ference at  Hagenau.  Melancthon  was  sent  there  too  by 
the  Elector.  But  on  reaching  Weimar  on  June  13,  where 
the  prince  was  then  staying,  he  suddenly  fell  ill,  and  it 
seemed  as  if  his  end  was  close  at  hand.  He  was  oppressed 
with  trouble  and  anxiety  about  the  WTongdoing  of  the 
Landgrave.  The  Elector  himself  wrote  reproachfully  to 
Philip,  saying  that  '  Philip  Melancthon  was  disturbed  with 
miserable  thoughts  about  him,'  and  he  now  lay  between 
life  and  death.  Luther  was  sent  for  by  the  Elector  from 
Wittenberg.  He  found  the  sick  man  lying  in  a  state  of  uncon- 


PROGRESS  A\D  INTERNAL    TROUBLES.  511 

sciousness  and  seemingly  quite  dead  to  the  world.  Shocked 
at  the  sight,  he  exclaimed,  '  God  help  us !  how  has  Satan 
marred  this  vessel  of  Thy  grace !  '  Then  the  faithful, 
manly  friend  fell  to  praying  God  for  his  precious  com- 
panion, casting,  as  he  said,  all  his  heart's  request  before 
Him,  and  reminding  Him  of  all  the  promises  contained  in 
His  own  AYord.  He  exhorted  and  bade  Melancthon  to  be 
of  good  courage,  for  that  God  willed  not  the  death  of  a 
sinner,  and  he  would  yet  live  to  serve  Him.  He  assured 
him  he  would  rather  now  depart  himself.  On  Melancthon's 
gradually  showing  more  signs  of  life,  he  had  some  food 
prepared  for  him,  and  on  his  refusing  it  said,  '  You  really 
must  eat,  or  I  will  excommunicate  you.'  By  degrees  the 
patient  revived  in  body  and  soul.  Luther  was  able  to 
inform  another  friend,  '  We  found  him  dead,  and  by  an 
evident  miracle  he  lives.' 

Luther,  after  this,  was  taken  to  Eisenach  by  his  prince, 
to  advise  him  on  the  news  which  he  expected  to  receive 
there  from  Hagenau.  At  Eisenach  he  and  the  chancellor 
Brück  had  an  earnest  consultation  with  envoys  from  Hesse. 
Against  these,  both  Luther  and  Brück  insisted  that  the  pro- 
ceedings which  had  taken  place  between  Philip  and  the 
theologians  in  respect  to  his  marriage  should  be  kept  as 
secret  as  a  confession,  and  that  Philip  must  be  content  to 
have  his  second  marriage  regarded,  in  the  eyes  of  the  world 
and  according  to  the  law,  as  concubinage.  He  must  make 
up  his  mind,  therefore,  to  parry,  as  best  he  could,  the  ques- 
tions which  were  being  noised  abroad  about  him,  with 
vague  statements  or  equivocations.  He  would  then  incur 
no  further  personal  danger.  But  any  attempt  to  brazen  it 
out  would  inevitably  land  him  in  confusion  and  embarrass- 
ment, and  only  increase  and  continue  the  damage  done  to 
the  Evangelical  cause  by  this  affair. 

The  Diet  at  Hagenau  made  no  further  demand  on 
Luther's  activity.  It  was  there  resolved  to  take  in  hand  again, 
at  another  meeting  to  be  held  at  Worms  late  in  the  autumn. 


512  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

and  after  further  preparation,  the  reHgious  and  ecclesiastical 
questions  at  issue.  Peaceably-disposed  and  competent  men 
were  to  be  appointed  on  both  sides  for  this  purpose.  Thus 
Luther  was  now  at  liberty  to  leave  Eisenach  towards  the 
end  of  July,  and  return  home,  dissatisfied,  as  he  wrote  to 
his  wife,  with  the  Diet  at  Hagenau,  where  labour  and 
expense  had  been  wasted,  but  happy  in  the  thought  that 
Melancthon  had  been  restored  from  death  to  life. 

At  Worms  the  proceedings,  in  which  Melancthon  and 
Eck  took  a  prominent  part,  were  further  adjourned  to  a  Diet 
which  the  Emperor  purposed  to  hold  in  person  at  Katisbon 
early  in  1541.  Here,  on  April  27,  a  debate  was  opened  on 
rfiligion. 

Luther  entertained  very  slender  expectations  from  all 

these  conferences,  considering  the  long-ascertained  opinions 

of  his  opponents.     He  pointed  to  the  innocent  blood  which 

had  long  stamed  the  hands  of  the  Emperor  Charles  and 

King  Ferdinand.     Still,   during  the  Diet  at  Worms,  the 

thought  arose  in  his  mind  that,  if  only  the  Emperor  were 

rightly  disposed,  a  German  Council  might  actually  result 

from  that    assembly.      He    saw  his  enemies    busy    with 

their  secret  schemes  of  mischief,  and  feared  lest  many  of  his 

comrades  in  the  faith,  such  as  the  Landgrave  Philip,  might 

treat  too  lightly  the  matter,  which  was  no  mere  comedy 

among  men,  but  a  tragedy  in  which  God  and  Satan  were  the 

actors.     He  rejoiced  again,  however,  that  the  falsehood  and 

cunning  of  his  enemies  must  be  brought  to  nought  by  their 

own  folly,  and  that  God  Himself  would  consummate  the  gre^rt 

catastrophe  of  the  drama.     And  in  regard  to  the  fear  we 

have  just  mentioned,  he  declared   that   he,  at  any  rate, 

would   not    suffer   himself  to    be   dragged    into   anything 

against  his  own  conviction.     '  Eather,'  said  he,  '  would  I 

take  the  matter  again  on  my  own  shoulders,  and  stand 

alone,  as  at  the  beginning.     We  know  that  it  is  the  cause 

of  God,  and  He  will  carry  it  through  to  the  end  ;  whoever 

will  not  go  with  it,  must  remain  behind.' 


PROGRESS  AND  INTERNAL    TROUBLES.  5 [3 

Between  the  Diets  of  Worms  and  Eatisbon  he  entered 
in  1541,  with  all  his  old  severity,  and  with  a  violence 
even  beyond  his  wont,  into  a  bitter  correspondence  which 
had  just  then  begun  between  Duke  Henry  of  Brunswick- 
Wolfenbiittel,  a  zealous  Catholic,  and  morally  of  ill  re- 
pute with  friend  and  foe,  on  the  one  side,  and  John 
Frederick  and  the  Landgrave  Philip,  the  heads  of  the 
Schmalkaldic  League,  on  the  other.  He  published  against 
Duke  Henry  a  pamphlet  *  Against  Hans  Worst.'  Tlie  Duke 
had  taunted  him  with  having  allowed  himself  to  call  his 
own  sovereign  Hans  Wurst.  Luther  assured  him,  in 
reply,  that  he  had  never  given  this  name  to  a  smgle  man, 
whether  friend  or  foe  ;  but  now  applied  it  to  the  Duke,  be- 
cause he  found  it  meant  a  stupid  blockhead  who  wished 
to  be  thought  clever  and  all  the  time  spoke  and  acted  likß 
a  simpleton.  But  he  was  not  content  with  calling  him  a 
blockhead ;  he  represented  him  as  a  profligate  man,  who, 
while  libelling  the  princes  and  pretending  to  be  the  cham- 
pion of  God's  ordinances,  himself  practised  open  adultery, 
committed  acts  of  violence  and  msolent  tyranny,  and  incited 
men  to  incendiarism  in  his  opponents'  territories.  He 
would  let  the  Duke  scream  himself  hoarse  or  dead  with  his 
calumnies  against  John  Frederick  and  the  Evangelicals, 
and  simply  answer  him  by  sayhag,  '  Devil,  thou  liest ! 
Hans  Worst,  how  thou  liest !  0,  Henry  W^olfenbiittel,  what 
a  shameless  liar  thou  art !  Thou  spittest  forth  much,  and 
namest  nothing  ;  thou  hbellest,  and  provest  nothing.'  At 
the  same  time  this  pamphlet  of  Luther  was  a  literary  vin- 
dication of  the  Reformation  and  Protestantism ;  here,  said 
he,  and  not  m  the  popedom,  was  the  true,  ancient,  and  original 
Christian  Church.  Luther  himself,  on  reading  over  his 
pamphlet  after  it  was  printed,  thought  its  tone  against 
Henry  was  too  mud ;  a  headache,  he  said,  must  have  sup- 
pressed his  indignation. 

Just   at   this  time   he    had   to  encounter   a   fresh  and 
violent  attack  of  illness.     He  described  it,  in  a  letter  to 

L  L 


514  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

Melancthon,  who  was  then  at  Eatisbon,  as  a  '  cold  in  the 
head ;  '  it  was  accompanied  not  only  with  alarming  giddi- 
ness, from  which  he  was  now  a  frequent  sufferer,  but  also 
with  deafness  and  intolerable  pains,  forcing  tears  from  his 
eyes,  something  unusual  with  him,  and  making  him  call 
on  God  to  put  an  end  to  his  pain  or  to  his  life.  A  copious 
discharge  of  matter  from  his  ear,  which  occurred  in  Passion 
Week,  gave  him  relief ;  but  for  a  long  while  he  continued 
very  weak  and  suffering.  To  his  prince,  who  sent  his 
private  physician  to  attend  him,  he  wrote  on  April  25, 
thanking  him,  and  adding,  '  I  should  have  been  well  con- 
tent if  the  dear  Lord  Jesus  had  taken  me  in  His  mercy 
from  hence,  as  I  am  now  of  little  more  use  on  earth.'  He 
attributed  his  recovery  to  the  intercessions  which  Bugen- 
hagen  had  made  for  him  in  the  Church. 

Whilst  he  was  still  feeling  his  head  thus  full  of  pain 
and  unfit  for  work,  he  was  called  upon  to  give  his  opinion 
on  the  preparations  for  the  religious  conference  at  Ratisbon, 
and  afterwards  ui)on  its  results. 

Bright  prospects  seemed  now  to  be  opening  for  the  victory 
of  the  Gospel.  Men  of  understanding  and  really  desirous  of 
peace  had  for  once  been  commissioned,  by  the  Catholics 
as  well  as  by  the  Protestants,  to  conduct  the  debate. 
The  chief  actors  were  no  longer  an  Eck,  though  he,  too, 
was  one  of  the  collocutors,  but  the  pious,  gentle,  and 
refined  theologian  Julius  von  Pflug,  and  the  electoral 
counsellor  of  Cologne,  Gropper,  who  vied  with  him  in  an 
earnest  desire  for  reform  and  unity.  Contarini  also  was 
there,  as  the  Papal  legate — a  man  influenced  by  purely 
religious  motives,  and  a  convert  to  the  deeper  Evangelical 
doctrine  of  salvation.  Melancthon  and  Butzer  were  also 
there.  The  questions  of  most  importance  from  the  Evan- 
gelical point  of  view  were  first  dealt  with — namely,  those 
which  related,  not  to  the  external  system  and  authority 
of  the  Church,  but  to  man's  need  of,  and  the  way  to  obtain, 
salvation,    to    sin,  grace,   and   justification.     And  it    was 


PROGRESS  AND   INTERNAL    TROUBLES.  515 

now  unanimously  confessed  that  the  faithful  soul  is  sustained 
solely  by  the  righteousness  given  by  Christ ;  and  for  His 
sake  alone,  and  not  for  any  worthiness  or  works  of  its  own, 
is  justified  and  accepted  by  God. 

Never  before,  and  never  since,  have  Protestant  and 
Catholic  theologians  approached  each  other  so  nearly,  nay, 
been  so  unanimous,  on  these  fundamental  doctrines,  as  on 
that  memorable  day.  And  the  Catholics,  in  this,  distinctly 
left  the  ground  of  mediaeval  scholasticism,  and  went  over 
to  that  of  the  Evangelicals.  How  distinctly  this  was  done 
will  be  apparent  to  any  one  who  compares  the  propositions 
accepted  at  the  Conference  of  Eatisbon  with  the  Catholic 
reply  to  the  Augsburg  Confession  of  1530. 

Nevertheless,  we  do  not  find  that  Luther  felt  particularly 
elated  by  the  news  from  Eatisbon.  The  formula  which 
embodied  their  agreement  seemed  to  him  a  '  roundabout 
and  patched  affair.'  In  connection  with  faith,  as  the 
only  means  of  justification,  too  much,  he  thought,  was  said 
of  the  works  which  must  spring  from  it ;  in  connection 
with  the  justification  given  to  the  faithful  through  Christ, 
too  much  was  said  of  the  righteousness  which  each  Christian 
must  strive  to  attain.  He,  too,  had  always  taught  and 
demanded  both  works  and  righteousness.  But  the  present 
arrangement  of  clauses  seemed  to  him  calculated  to  lessen 
and  obscure  again  the  primary  importance  of  Christ  and 
of  Faith,  as  the  sole  means  of  salvation.  And  we  see 
what  objection  was  uppermost  in  his  mind,  in  his  allusion 
to  Eck,  who  also  was  obliged  to  subscribe  the  formula. 
Eck,  said  Luther,  would  never  confess  to  having  once 
taught  differently  to  now,  and  would  know  well  enough 
how  to  adopt  the  new  tenets  to  his  old  way  of  thinking. 
They  were  putting  a  patch  of  new  cloth  upon  an  old  gar- 
ment, and  the  rent  would  be  made  worse.     (Matt.  ix.  16.) 

Luther  was  spared,  however,  a  decision  as  to  the  ac- 
ceptance or  non-acceptance  of  an  agreement.  For  among 
the  Catholic  Estates  of  the  Empire  he  found,  so  far  as  he 

ll2 


5i6  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

had  followed  the  debate  of  the  Diet,  too  strong  an  oppo- 
sition to  hope  for  real  union.  Moreover,  the  collocutors 
themselves  were  unable  to  agree  when  they  came  to  further 
questions,  as,  for  example,  the  Mass  and  Transubstantiation  ; 
they  still  shipwrecked,  therefore,  on  those  points  which 
were  of  the  most  vital  importance  for  the  external  glorifica- 
tion of  the  priesthood  and  the  Church,  and  the  surrender 
of  which  would  have  meant  the  sacrifice  of  a  dogma  already 
ratified  by  a  Conciliar  decree. 

On  June  11  an  embassy  from  Eatisbon  appeared  before 
Luther  in  the  name  of  those  Protestant  states  which  were 
most  zealous  for  unity.  Prince  John  of  Anhalt  was  at 
their  head.  Luther  was  requested  to  declare  his  concur- 
rence with  what  had  been  done,  and  assist  them  in  giving 
permanent  effect  to  the  articles  agreed  to  at  the  Conference, 
and  arranging  some  peaceful  and  tolerant  compromise  with 
regard  to  those  points  on  which  agi'eement  had  been  im- 
possible. Luther  was  quite  prepared  to  acquiesce  in  such 
toleration,  provided  only  the  Emperor  would  permit  the 
preaching  of  the  articles  referring  to  the  doctrine  of  salva- 
tion, leaving  it  open  to  the  Protestants  to  continue  their 
warfare  of  the  Word  on  the  points  still  remaining  in  dispute. 
The  Emperor,  however,  would  only  sanction  those  articles 
on  the  understanding  that  a  Council  should  finally  decide 
upon  them,  and  that,  in  the  meantime,  all  controversial 
writings  on  matters  of  religion  should  cease.  By  the  Catholic 
Estates  at  the  Diet  they  were  strenuously  opposed.  Luther's 
own  opinion  remained  substantially  the  same  as  before — 
namely,  that  any  trust  or  hopes  were  vain,  unless  their 
enemies  gave  God  the  honour  due  to  Him,  and  openly 
confessed  that  they  had  changed  their  teaching.  The 
Emperor  must  see  and  acknowledge  that  within  the  last 
twenty  years  his  Edict  had  been  the  murder  of  many  pious 
people. 

The  Conference  accordingly  remained  fruitless.  The 
Diet,  however,  did  not  close  without  achieving  an  important 


PROGRESS  AND  INTERNAL    TROUBLES.  517 

result  for  the  Protestants ;  for  the  Emperor  granted  them, 
at  their  request,  the  Eeligious  Peace  of  Nuremberg. 

The  main  reason  that  induced  Charles  so  far  to  tolera- 
tion and  leniency  was  the  trouble  with  the  Turks.  With 
regard  to  these,  Luther  now  addressed  himself  once  more 
to  his  countrymen  with  words  of  earnestness  and  weight. 
He  pubhshed  an  '  Exhortation  to  prayer  against  the  Turks,' 
teaching  and  warning  his  readers  to  regard  them  as  a 
scourge  of  God,  and  make  war  against  them  as  God  com- 
manded.    From  this  time  also  dates  his  hymn 

Lord,  shield  us  with  Thy  Word,  our  Hope, 
And  smite  the  Moslem  and  the  Pope. 

When  a  tax  was  levied  for  the  war  with  the  Turks,  Luther 
himself  begged  the  Elector  not  to  exempt  him  with  his 
scanty  goods.  He  would  gladly,  he  said,  if  not  too  old  and 
too  infirm,  *  be  one  of  the  army  himself.'  In  1542  he 
brought  out  for  his  countrymen  a  refutation  of  the  Koran, 
written  in  earlier  days,  that  they  migJit  learn  what  a 
shameful  faith  w^as  Mahomed's,  and  not  suffer  themselves 
to  be  perverted,  in  case  by  God's  decree  they  should  see 
the  Turks  victorious,  or  even  fall  into  their  hands. 


5i8 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

PROGRESS   AND    INTERNAL    TROUBLES   OF   PROTESTANTISM. 
1541-44. 

The  Keformation,  against  which  the  Emperor  had  so  re- 
peatedly to  promise  his  interference,  and  with  which  he 
was  compelled  to  seek  for  a  peaceful  understanding,  con- 
tinued meanwhile  to  gain  ground  in  various  parts  ol 
Germany. 

Luther  hailed  with  especial  joy  its  victory  in  the  town 
of  Halle,  which  had  formerly  been  a  favourite  seat  of  the 
Cardinal  Albert  and  the  chief  scene  of  his  wanton  extrava- 
gances, and  where  now  one  of  Luther's  most  intimate 
and  most  learned  friends  from  Wittenberg,  Justus  Jonas, 
was  installed  as  reformer  and  Evangelical  pastor.  Here 
the  final  impetus  was  given  to  the  movement,  among  the 
mass  of  the  population,  of  whom  the  large  majority  had 
long  espoused  the  cause  of  Luther,  by  those  money  diffi- 
culties which  played  such  a  serious  and  grievous  part  in 
the  life  of  Albert.  When,  in  the  spring  of  1541,  the  town 
was  called  on  to  pay  taxes  to  the  amount  of  22,000  gulden, 
to  defray  the  Cardinal's  debts,  the  citizens  made  the  pay- 
ment conditional  on  their  Council  appointing  an  Evan- 
gelical preacher.  Jonas  was  accordingly  invited  to  the 
town,  and  received  at  once,  on  his  arrival,  a  regular 
appointment  through  the  magistracy  and  a  committee  or 
the  congregation.  In  Passion  Week,  when  Luther  was 
recovering  from  his  illness  and  Albert  had  to  attend  the 
Diet  at  Eatisbon,  Jonas  for  the  first  time  took  his  place  in 
the  principal  church  in  the   town,  then  recently  rebuilt, 


PROGRESS  AND  INTERNAL    TROUBLES.  519 

in  the  pulpit  which  the  Archbishop  had  had  erected  with 
elaborate  carvings  in  stone.  Soon  after  the  two  other 
churches  in  the  town  received  Evangelical  preachers. 
The  general  regulation  of  Church  matters  was  entrusted 
to  Jonas,  and  remained  under  his  control.  Luther, 
however,  supported  his  friend  with  his  advice,  and  con- 
tinued on  terms  of  trusted  intimacy  with  him  till  his 
death.     He  did  not  conceal  his  joy  that  the  *  wicked  old 


m^^ 


•""ilip!! 


^^In^vW/^^'^w^^^^W^ 


Fig.  45.— Jonas.     (From  a  portrait  by  Cranach,  in  his  Album 
at  Berlin,  1543.) 

rogue,'  Albert,  should  have  had  to  live  to  see  this,  and 
praised  God  for  upholding  His  judgment  upon  earth.  The 
collection  of  countless  and  wonderful  relics  with  which  the 
Cardinal,  twenty  years  before,  had  sought  to  carry  on  the 
traffic  in  indulgences,  so  hateful  to  Luther,  he  now  wished 
to  exhibit  in  like  manner  at  Mayence,  his  town  of  residence. 
Thereupon  Luther,  in  1542,  published  anonymously,  but 
with  the  evident  intention  of  being  recognised  as  its  author, 
a  *  New  Paper  from  the  Rhine,'  which  announced  to  German 


520  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

Christendom  a  series  of  new,  unheard-of  rehcs,  collected  by 
his  Highness  the  Elector,  such  as  a  piece  of  the  left  horn 
of  Moses,  three  tongues  of  flame  from  his  burning  bush, 
&c.,  and  lastly  a  whole  drachm  of  his  own  true  heart  and 
half  an  ounce  of  his  own  truthful  tongue,  which  his  High- 
ness had  added  as  a  legacy  by  his  last  will  and  testament. 
The  Pope,  said  Luther,  had  promised  to  anyone  who  should 
give  a  gulden  in  honour  of  the  relics,  a  remission  for  ten 
years  of  whatever  sins  he  pleased.  Contempt  of  this  kind 
was  all  that  Luther  found  the  exhibition  deserved.  Albert 
remained  silent. 

About  the  same  time  the  Elector  John  Frederick  under- 
took a  novel,  important,  though  a  dangerous,  and  to  Luther 
an  objectionable  step,  in  connection  with  a  bishopric  then 
vacant.  The  Bishop  of  Naumburg  had  died.  The  Chapter 
of  the  Cathedral,  with  whom  lay  the  election  of  his  suc- 
cessor, were  accustomed  to  guide  their  choice  by  the  wish 
of  the  Elector,  as  their  territorial  sovereign.  They  now 
elected,  without  waiting  to  hear  from  John  Frederick,  who 
had  seceded  from  Catholicism,  the  distinguished  Julius  von 
Pflug.  The  Elector,  on  the  contrary,  was  anxious,  as  his 
privilege  was  hurt  by  this  neglect,  to  nominate  a  bishop  of 
his  own  choice,  and,  moreover,  a  member  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession.  His  Chancellor,  Brück,  protested  earnestly 
against  this  step,  and  Luther  could  not  refrain  from  en- 
dorsing his  remonstrance.  If  the  common  herd  of  Papists, 
he  said,  had  been  content  to  look  on  and  see  what  had  been 
done  to  priests  and  monks,  they  and  the  Emperor  would 
not  care  to  see  the  same  things  done  with  the  Ej)iscopate. 
The  Elector  thought  this  pusillanimous ;  he  wished  to 
be  bolder  and  more  spirited  than  Luther.  It  was  a  pity 
only  that  his  pious  zeal  lacked  the  more  circumspect 
judgment  of  his  advisers,  and  that  the  interests  of  his  own 
authority  were  also  concerned.  He  declined  even  to  accept 
the  advice  of  the  Wittenberg  theologians,  who  suggested 
that,  at  all  events,  the  bishopric  should  be  given  to  the 


PROGRESS  A  XL)  INTERNAL   TROUBLES.  521 

eminent  prince  of  the  Empire,  George  of  Anhalt,  but  chose 
Nicholas  von  Amsdorf — a  man  of  better  promise,  not,  indeed, 
solely  from  his  theological  principles,  but  as  being  likely 
to  be  more  dependent  on  his  territorial  sovereign,  though 
perhaps,  as  an  unmarried  man  and  a  member  of  the 
nobility,  less  repugnant  than  any  other  Protestant  theo- 
logian to  the  Catholics.  On  January  18,  1542,  the  Elector 
brought  him  in  solemn  state  to  Naumburg  before  the 
chapter  there  assembled. 

Luther  was  glad,  nevertheless,  to  see  an  Evangelical 
bishop.  He  took  care  to  introduce  him  in  Evangelical 
manner.  According  to  the  Catholic  doctrine,  as  is  well 
known,  the  Episcopate  is  transmitted  from  the  Apostles  by 
the  act  of  consecration,  with  the  laying  on  of  hands  and 
anointing,  which  can  only  be  done  by  one  bishop  to  another, 
and  only  a  bishop  can  then  consecrate  priests  or  the  clergy. 
The  Reformers  would  easily  have  been  able  to  continue 
this  so-called  Apostolical  succession  through  the  Prussian 
bishops  who  went  over  to  them.  But,  as  they  never 
acknowledged  the  necessity  of  this  with  regard  to  the  inferior 
clergy,  neither  did  they  with  regard  to.  the  new  bishop. 
Luther  himself  consecrated  Amsdorf  on  January  20,  together 
with  two  Evangelical  superintendents  of  the  neighbourhood, 
and  the  principal  pastor  and  superintendent  of  the  Evange- 
lical congregation  at  Naumburg,  with  prayer  and  the  laying 
on  of  hands,  in  the  presence  of  the  various  orders  and  a 
multitude  of  people  from  the  town  and  district  assembled  in 
the  Cathedral.  The  congregation  were  first  informed  that  an 
honest,  upright  bishop  had  now  been  nominated  for  them 
by  their  sovereign  and  his  estates  in  concert  with  the  clergy, 
and  they  were  called  upon  to  express  their  own  approval  by 
an  Amen,  which  was  thereupon  given  loudly  in  response. 
In  this  manner  at  least  it  was  sought  to  comply  with  a  rule 
especially  enjoined  by  Cyprian :  namely,  that  a  bishop 
should  be  elected  in  an  assembly  of  neighbouring  bishops 
and  with  the  consent   of  his  own  congregation.     Luther 


"522 


LUTHER    AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 


gave  an  account  of  the  ceremony  in  a  tract,  entitled 
*  Example  of  the  way  to  consecrate  a  true  Christian 
bishop.' 

Briick's  apprehensions  meantime  were  only  too  well 
founded.  The  complaints  raised  against  this  consecration 
weighed  heavily  with  even  the  more  moderate  opponents  of  the 


Fig.  46. — Amsdorf.     (From  an  old  woodcut.) 

Reformation,  and  especially  with  the  Emperor.  It  was  at  the 
same  time  very  evident  that,  as  we  have  elsewhere  observed, 
the  Elector,  good  Churchman  as  he  was  by  disposition,  fre- 
quently displayed  too  little  energy  in  regard  to  the  general 
relations  and  interests  of  his  Church.  Thus  the  arrange- 
ments required  for  the  bishopric  remained  neglected,  and 


PROGRESS  AND  INTERNAL    TROUBLES.  523 

the  new  bishop  was  furnished  with  a  most  inadequate 
maintenance.  Luther  complained  that  the  Electoral  Court 
undertook  great  things,  and  then  left  them  sticking  in  the 
mire.  Moreover,  among  many  of  the  temporal  lords,  even 
on  the  Protestant  side,  there  were  signs  of  spiteful  jealousy 
and  suspicion  against  the  honours  and  advantages  enjoyed 
by  their  theologians.  Luther  himself  proceeded  therefore 
with  the  utmost  possible  caution.  He  even  declined  once 
a  present  of  venison  from  his  friend  Amsdorf,  in  order  not 
to  give  occasion  for  calumny  by  the  '  Centaurs  at  Court ; ' 
though,  as  he  said,  they  themselves  had  devoured  every- 
thing, without  any  prickings  of  conscience.  '  Let  them,' 
he  wrote  to  Amsdorf,  '  guzzle  in  God's  name  or  in  any 
other.' 

Scarcely  had  the  Elector's  instalment  of  the  bishop 
(1542)  awakened  these  bitter  feehngs  of  resentment,  when  a 
war  threatened  to  break  out  between  the  Elector  and  his 
cousin  and  fellow-Protestant,  Duke  Maurice  of  Saxony, 
the  successor  of  his  late  father  Henry — a  war  which  would 
have  imperilled  more  than  anything  else  the  position  of  the 
Protestants  in  the  Empire,  and  which  stirred  and  disquieted 
Luther  to  his  inmost  soul. 

Between  the  ducal,  or  Albertine,  and  the  Electoral,  or 
Ernestine  lines  of  the  princely  house  of  Saxony,  various 
rights  were  in  dispute,  and  among  them,  m  i^articular, 
those  of  supreme  jurisdiction  over  the  little  town  of  Würzen, 
belonging  to  the  bishopric  of  Meissen.  When  now  the 
Bishop  of  Meissen  refused  to  let  the  subsidy,  levied  at 
Würzen  for  the  war  against  the  Turks,  be  forwarded  to  the 
Elector,  the  latter,  in  March  1542,  quickly  sent  thither 
his  troops.  Maurice  at  once  called  out  his  own  troops 
against  him.  Both  continued  to  arm,  and  prepared  to 
fight.  Luther  thereupon,  in  a  letter  of  April  7,  intended 
for  publication,  appealed  to  them  and  their  Estates  in  terms 
of  heartfelt  Christian  fervour  and  perfect  frankness.  He 
reminded  them  of  the  Scriptural  admonition  to  keep  peace ; 


524  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

of  the  close  relationship  of  the  two  princes  as  the  sons  of 
two  sisters;  of  their  noble  birth;  of  their  subjects,  the 
burghers  and  peasants,  who  were  so  closely  intermingled 
by  marriage  that  the  war  would  be  no  war,  but  a  mere 
family  brawl;  furthermore,  of  the  petty  ground  of  their 
fierce  contention,  just  as  if  two  drunken  rustics  were 
fighting  in  a  tavern  about  a  glass  of  beer,  or  two  idiots 
about  a  bit  of  bread ;  of  the  shame  and  scandal  for  the 
Gospel ;  and  of  the  triumph  of  their  enemies  and  the  devil, 
who  would  rejoice  to  see  this  little  spark  kindle  into  a  con- 
flagration. If  either  of  the  two,  instead  of  using  force, 
would  declare  himself  content  with  what  was  just  and  right, 
whether  it  were  his  own  Elector  or  the  Duke,  Luther  for  his 
part  would  assist  him  with  his  prayers,  and  he  might  then 
trust  himself  with  confidence  against  aggression,  and  leave 
spear  and  musket  to  the  children  of  discontent.  He  told 
the  others  that  they  had  incurred  the  ban  and  the  vengeance 
of  God ;  nay,  he  advised  all  who  had  to  fight  under  such  an 
unpeaceful  prince  to  run  from  the  field  as  fast  as  they 
could. 

The  Landgrave  Philip,  who  had  hitherto,  on  account  of 
his  second  marriage,  continued  somewhat  on  strained  terms 
with  John  Frederick,  brought  about  at  this  critical  moment 
a  peaceful  understanding  between  him  and  Maurice. 
The  young  duke,  however,  burned  with  an  ambition  which 
longed  to  satisfy  itself,  even  at  the  expense  of  his  cousin  and 
other  Protestant  princes,  and  his  power,  moreover,  was  far 
superior  to  the  Elector's.  Luther  augured  evil  for  the 
future. 

The  Eeformation  was  now  accepted  in  the  territory  also 
of  Duke  Henry  of  Brunswick.  The  Landgrave  Philip  and 
John  Frederick  had  taken  the  field  together  against  him, 
on  account  of  his  having  attacked  the  Evangelical  town 
of  Goslar  and  sought  defiantly  to  execute  against  it  a  sen- 
tence, in  connection  with  ecclesiastical  matters,  which  had 
threatened  it  from  the  Imperial  Chamber,  but  was  sus- 


PROGRESS  AND  INTERNAL    TROUBLES.  525 

pended  by  the  Emperor.  This  war  against  '  Henry  the 
Incendiary  '  Luther  considered  just  and  necessary,  the  ques- 
tion being  one  of  protecting  tlie  oppressed.  Wolfenbüttel, 
whose  fortress  the  Duke  boasted  to  be  impregnable,  speedily 
succumbed  on  August  18,  1542,  to  the  fate  of  war  and  the 
boldness  of  Philip.  Luther  saw  with  triumph  how  the 
fortress  w4iich,  it  was  reputed,  could  stand  a  six  years' 
siege,  had  fallen  in  three  days  by  the  help  of  God.  He 
hoped  only  that  the  conquerors  w^ould  be  humble  and  give 
the  glory  of  the  exploit  to  God.  They  then  occupied  the 
land,  the  prince  of  which  fled,  and  proceeded  to  establish 
the  Evangelical  Church,  in  accordance  wdth  the  general 
wish  of  the  population. 

Maurice  of  Saxony,  who  still  strenuously  adhered  to  the 
Evangelical  confession  and  to  his  rights  as  protector  of  the 
Church,  not  only  continued  the  reformation  commenced  in 
the  Duchy  by  his  father,  but  succeeded  in  extending  it 
peacefully  to  the  bishopric  of  Merseburg.  The  chapter 
there  decided,  in  1544,  on  his  nomination,  to  elect  to  the 
vacant  see  his  young  brother  Augustus,  who,  not  being 
himself  an  ecclesiastic,  delegated  at  once  his  episcopal 
functions  to  George  of  Anhalt,  Luther's  pious-minded  friend. 
Luther  m  the  summer  of  the  following  year  consecrated 
him,  in  the  same  manner  as  Amsdorf,  together  with  several 
superintendents,  and  with  Bugenhagen,  Cruciger,  and  Jonas. 

Events  far  greater  and  more  important  were  occurring 
in  the  archbishopric  of  Cologne.  Here  an  Archbishop  at 
once  and  Elector,  the  aged,  worthy  Hermann  of  Wied, 
had  resolved,  from  his  own  free  conviction,  to  undertake 
a  reformation  on  the  basis  of  the  Gospel.  In  1543  he 
invited  Melancthon  for  this  purpose  from  Wittenberg. 
Melancthon's  fellow-labourer  was  Butzer,  who  had  the  re- 
putation of  always  allowing  himself  to  be  carried  too  far  by 
his  zeal  for  general  unity  in  the  Church,  and  at  the  same 
time,  in  regard  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Sacrament,  even  as 
accepted  by  the  Wittenberg  Concord,  of  preferring  a  more 


526  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

vague  conception  of  his  own.  Luther,  however,  promoted 
the  undertaking  with  thanks  to  God,  himself  furthered  Me- 
lancthon's  going,  assured  him  of  his  entire  confidence,  and 
learned  from  him  with  joy  of  the  Archbishop's  uprightness, 
penetration,  and  constancy.  In  like  manner,  the  Bishop  of 
Münster  also  began  to  attempt  a  reformation,  in  conformity 
with  the  wishes  of  his  Estates. 

The  Emperor  at  length,  who  since  1542  had  been  again 
at  war  with  France,  and  who  needed  therefore  all  the  as- 
sistance that  his  German  Estates  could  give  him,  displayed 
at  a  now  Diet  at  Spires,  in  1544,  more  gracious  considera- 
tion to  the  Protestants  than  he  had  ever  done  before.  In 
the  Imperial  Eecess  he  promised  not  only  to  endeavour  to 
bring  about  a  general  Council,  to  be  assembled  in  Germany, 
but  undertook,  since  the  meeting  of  such  a  Council  was  still 
uncertain,  to  convoke  another  Diet,  which  should  itself  deal 
with  the  religion  in  dispute.  In  the  meantime,  he  and  the 
various  Estates  of  the  Empire  w^ould  consider  and  prepare  a 
scheme  for  Christian  unity  and  a  general  Christian  reforma- 
tion. The  Archbishop  Albert,  now  wholly  embittered  against 
the  Reformation,  had  issued  a  warning,  after  the  Diet  of  1541, 
against  any  agreement  to  hold  a  Council  on  German  soil, 
as  the  Protestant  poison  would  here  have  too  powerful  an 
influence  ;  in  a  national  German  Council  he  foresaw  the 
threatening  danger  of  a  schism.  The  resolutions  passed 
at  Spires  brought  down  severe  reproaches  from  the  Pope 
against  the  Emperor.  What  particularly  scandalised  his 
Christian  Holiness  was  that  laymen — aye,  laymen,  who 
supported  the  condemned  heretics — were  to  sit  as  judges  in 
matters  concerning  the  Church  and  the  priesthood. 

Protestantism,  both  in  its  extent  and  jDower,  had  now 
reached  a  point  of  progress  in  the  German  Empire  which 
seemed  to  offer  a  possibility  of  its  becoming  the  religion  of 
the  great  majority  of  the  nation,  and  even  of  this  majority 
being  united.  Charles  V.,  nevertheless,  kept  his  eyes  steadily 
fixed  on  his  original  goal — nay,  he  probably  felt  himself 


PJ^OGA'/iSS  A\D  JXTEKXAL    TROUBLES.  527 

nearer  to  it  than  ever.  By  his  concessions  he  obtained  an 
army,  which  enabled  him  in  the  September  of  that  year  to 
conclude  a  durable  peace  with  King  Francis,  stipulating,  as 
before,  but  secretly,  for  mutual  co-operation  for  the  restora- 
tion of  Catholic  unity  in  the  Church.  The  next  thing  to 
be  done  was  to  persuade  the  Pope  at  length  to  convene  a  / 
Council,  which  should  serve  this  object  in  the  sense  in- 
tended by  the  Emperor,  and  then  to  enforce  by  its  authority 
the  final  subjection  of  the  Protestants. 

This  possibility  of  a  final  triumph  of  Protestantism 
might  have  been  counted  on  with  hope,  if  only  that  breath 
of  the  Spirit  which  had  once  been  stirred  by  the  Eeformer 
and  had  already  responded  to  his  efforts  had  remained  in 
full  force  and  vigour  in  the  hearts  of  the  German  people ; 
and  if  the  new  Spirit,  thus  awakened,  had  really  penetrated 
the  masses,  or,  at  least,  the  influential  classes  and  high 
personages  who  espoused  the  new  faith,  and  had  purified 
and  strengthened  them  to  fight,  to  work,  and  to  suffer. 
But  Luther  complained  from  the  very  first,  and  more  and 
more  as  time  went  on,  how  sadly  this  Spirit  was  wanting 
to  assist  him  in  proclaiming  the  Gospel  and  combating  the 
anti- Christian  system  of  Rome.  Thus  he  again  complained, 
when  hearing  of  what  had  happened  at  Cologne,  at  Münster, 
and  at  Brunswick,  that  '  much  evil  and  little  good  happens 
to  us ;  '  he  adapted  to  his  own  Church  community  the 
proverb,  *  The  nearer  Eome,  the  worse  the  Christian,'  as 
well  as  the  words  of  the  prophets,  lamenting  the  iniquity 
of  Jerusalem,  the  holy  city.  In  his  zeal  he  reproached  the 
Evangelical  congregations  even  more  severely  than  his 
Catholic  and  Popish  opponents  would  ever  have  ventured 
to  reproach  them,  inasmuch  as  their  own  moral  position, 
to  say  the  least,  was  not  a  whit  better.  But  against  the 
former,  his  own  brethren,  Luther  had  to  complain  of  base 
ingratitude  to  God  for  the  signal  benefits  He  had  vouch- 
safed them.  Thus  the  peasantry,  in  particular,  he  taxed 
again  and  again  with  their  old  selfish  and  obstinate  indif- 


528  LUTHER  AND    THE   PROTESTANTS. 

ference  and  stupidity  ;  the  burghers  with  their  luxury  and 
service  of  Mammon  ;  and  his  fellow-countrymen  in  general 
with  their  gluttony  and  their  coarse  and  carnal  appetites.  It 
pained  him  most  to  see  these  sins  prevail  among  his  nearest 
fellow-townsmen  and  followers,  his  Wittenbergers  ;  and  he 
lashed  out  with  all  his  force  against  the  students  whom, 
as  a  class,  he  saw  addicted  to  unchastity  and  to  '  swinish 
vices,'  as  he  called  them.  The  authorities,  in  his  opinion, 
were  far  too  unmindful  of  their  high  appointment  by  God, 
of  which  he  had  taken  such  pains  to  assure  them.  When 
Church  discipline  came  to  be  really  introduced  and  made 
more  stringent,  he  foresaw  quite  well  that  it  would  only  touch 
the  peasants,  and  not  reach  the  upper  classes.  Among  the 
great  nobles  at  Court,  especially  at  Dresden,  but  also  at 
that  of  the  Elector,  he  found  '  violent  Centaurs  and  greedy 
Harpies,'  who  preyed  upon  the  Reformation  and  disgraced 
it,  and  in  whose  midst  it  was  difficult — nay,  impossible — 
even  for  an  honest,  right-minded  ruler  to  govern  as  a  true 
Christian.  He  had  already,  and  especially  in  these  latter 
years,  been  in  conflict  with  lawyers,  including  some  of  well- 
recognised  conscientiousness,  such  as  his  colleague  and 
friend  Schürf,  about  many  questions  in  which  they  declared 
themselves  unable  to  deviate  from  theories  of  the  canon 
or  even  the  Eoman  law,  which  he  considered  unchristian 
and  immoral.  He  declared  it,  for  example,  to  be  an  insult 
to  the  law  of  God  that  they  should  insist  so  strongly  on 
the  obligation  of  vows  of  marriage,  made  by  young  people 
m  secret  and  against  their  parents'  will.  So  far  from 
anticipating  the  triumph  of  the  Evangelical  religion,  while 
such  was  the  condition  of  Germans  and  German  Protes- 
tants, he  predicted  with  anxiety  heavy  punishment  for  his 
country,  and  declared  that  God  would  assuredly  cause  the 
confessors  of  the  Gospel  to  be  purged  and  sifted  by  calamity. 
Just  at  that  time,  w^hen  a  decisive  moment  was  ap- 
proaching for  the  great  ecclesiastical  contest  in  Germany, 
Luther  felt  himself  constrained  to  rend  asunder  once  more 


PROGRESS  AND  INTERNAL    TROUBLES.  529 

the  bond  of  peace  and  mutual  toleration  which  had  been 
established  with  such  trouble  between  himself  and  the  Swiss 
Evangelicals.     In  doing  so,  he  had  seen  no  reason  either 
to  change  or  conceal  his  old  opinion  about  Zwingli.     The 
Swiss,  on  the  other  hand,  offended  by  Luther's  utterances, 
took,  in  a  manner,  their  honoured   teacher    and   reformer 
under  their  protection ;  from  which  Luther  concluded  that 
they  still  clung  to  all  his  errors.     A  lurking  distrust  of 
Luther   had    never   been   wholly    dispelled    among   them. 
Luther  heard,  moreover,  of  corrupting  influences  still  exer- 
cised by  the  Sacramentarians  outside  Switzerland.     A  letter 
reached  him  to  that  effect  from  some  of  his  adherents  at 
Venice,  whose  complaints  of  the  mischievous  results  of  the 
Sacramental  controversy  among    their   fellow-worshippers 
ascribed  that  controversy   to  the    continued    influence    of 
Zwinglianism.  In  August  1543  he  wrote  to  the  Zurich  printer 
Froschauer,  who  had  j^resented   him  with  a  translation  of 
the  Bible  made  by  the  preacher  of  that  town,  saying  briefly 
and  frankly  that  he  could  have  no  fellowship  with  them, 
and  that  he  had  no  desire  to  share  the  blame  of  then*  per- 
nicious   doctrine ;    he  was   sorry   '  that  they  should  have 
laboured  in  vain,  and  should  after  all  be  lost.'     Even  in 
a  scheme  of  reformation  which  Butzer,  with  Melancthon, 
had  prepared  for  Cologne,  he   now  discovered  some  sus- 
picious articles  about  the  Sacrament,  to  which  a  criticism 
of  Amsdorf  had  drawn  his   notice ;    they  passed  over,  it 
appeared,  Luther's  declaration,  already  agreed  on,  about 
the  substantial  presence  of   Christ's   Body  in  the   Sacra- 
ment, or  merely  '  mumbled  it,'  as  was  Luther's  expression. 
Nay,  he  heard  it  said  that  even  Wittenberg  and  himself 
would  not  adhere  to  his  doctrine  on  this  point.     Occasion, 
indeed,  was  given  for  this  remark  by  the  circumstance  that 
the  ancient  usage  of   the  Elevation  of   the  Host,  which, 
though  connected  with  the  Catholic  idea  of  sacrifice,  had 
nevertheless  been  hitherto  retained,  though  interpreted  in 
another  sense,  was  now  at  length  abolished  at  Wittenberg. 

M  M 


530  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

After  much  anger  and  discontent,  Luther  broke  out,  in 
September  1544,  with  the  tract,  '  Short  Confession  of  the 
Holy  Sacrament.'  He  had  nothing  to  do  with  any  new 
refutation  of  false  teachers— these,  he  said,  had  already 
been  frequently  convicted  by  him  as  open  blasphemers— 
but  simply  to  testify  once  more  against  the  '  fanatics  and 
enemies  of  the  Sacrament,  Carlstadt,  Zwingh,  (Ecolam- 
padius,  Schwenkfeld,  and  their  disciples,'  and  once  and 
for  all  to  renounce  all  fellowship  with  these  lost  souls. 

Alarming  reports  were  spread  about  attacks  being 
also  meditated  by  Luther  against  Butzer  and  Melancthon. 
Melancthon  himself  trembled  ;  he  seriously  feared  he 
should  be  compelled  to  retire  into  exile.  But  not  a  word 
did  Luther  say  against  Butzer,  beyond  calling  him,  as  he 
did  now,  a  chatterbox.  Against  Melancthon  we  find  no- 
where, not  even  in  Luther's  letters  to  his  intimate 
friends,  a  single  harsh  or  menacing  expression  from  his 
lips.  He  maintained  his  confidence  in  him,  even  in 
respect  to  the  later  proceedings  in  the  Church.  When 
urged  to  publish  a  collection  of  his  Latin  writings,  he  long 
refused  to  do  so,  as  he  says  in  the  preface  to  his  edition  of 
1545,  because  there  were  already  such  excellent  works  on 
Christian  doctrine,  such  as,  in  particular,  the  '  Loci  Com- 
munes '  of  Melancthon,  which  its  author  had  recently  re- 
vised. It  must  be  regretted  that  Melancthon,  at  moments 
like  these,  which  must  have  caused  him  pain,  did  not  open 
his  heart  with  more  freedom  and  courage  to  the  friend 
whose  heart  still  beat  with  such  warm  and  unchanging 
affection  for  himself. 

Luther  never,  till  the  day  of  his  death,  bestowed  much 
care  or  calculation  on  the  immediate  consequences  of  his 
acts  and  of  the  work  to  which  he  felt  himself  called  and 
urged  by  God,  and  which  certainly  brought  out  in  strong 
rehef  the  individuality  of  his  nature.  While  committmg, 
as  he  did,  the  cause  to  God  alone,  he  kept  steadily  in  \iew 
the  ultimate  goal  to  which  God  was  surely  guiding  it— nay, 


PROGRESS  AND  INTERNAL    TROUBLES.  531 

that  goal  was  immediately  before  his  eyes.  His  conlident 
behef  in  the  near  approach  of  the  last  day,  when  the  Lord 
would  solve  all  these  earthly  doubts  and  difficulties,  and 
manifest  Himself  in  the  perfect  glory  and  bhss  of  His 
kingdom,  remained  in  him  unaltered  from  the  beginning  of 
his  struggle  to  the  end  of  his  laljours.  We  recognise  in 
this  belief  the  intensity  of  his  own  longings,  wrestlings,  and 
strivings  for  this  end,  as  also  the  sincerity  of  his  own  con- 
viction, little  as  the  days  of  which  we  are  now  speaking, 
so  busy  with  events  of  every  kind,  corresponded  with  the 
time  ordained  by  God.  Luther  stretched  out  his  view  and 
aspirations  beyond  this  world,  all  the  time  that  he  was 
teaching  Christians  again  how  to  honour  the  world  in  the 
moral  duties  assigned  to  them,  and  to  enjoy  its  blessings 
and  benefits  with  thankfulness  to  God.  *  No  man  knoweth 
the  day  or  the  hour  ' — of  this  he  constantly  reminded  them, 
and  warned  them  against  idle  speculations.  But  his  hopes, 
nevertheless,  ^he  still  rested  on  the  nearness  of  the  end. 
These  hopes  he  expressed  with  peculiar  assurance  in  a  small 
Latin  tract,  written  during  these  later  years  of  his  life,  in 
which  he  treats  of  Biblical  chronology,  and  further  of  the 
epochal  years  in  the  history  of  the  world.  In  referring, 
for  example,  to  the  wide-spread  theory,  originating  with 
the  Jews,  of  a  great  Week  of  six  thousand  years,  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  final  and  everlasting  Day  of  Best,  he  sought 
with  much  ingenuity  of  reasoning  to  prove  that  of  those 
six  thousand  years  probably  only  half  would  be  accom- 
plished. Since  now,  according  to  his  chronology,  the  year 
1,540  was  the  5,500th  year  of  the  world,  the  end  was  bound 
to  be  at  hand — nay,  was  already  overdue — when  his  little 
book  appeared  in  1541.  Yet,  whatever  were  his  views  on 
this  point,  he  never,  like  so  many  others,  allowed  himself 
to  be  drawn  by  such  hopes  and  desires  into  illusions  dan- 
gerous in  practice. 

This   year   passed  by  without  any  further  or  greater 
literary  labour  on  his  part. 

M  M  2 


532  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

In  addition  to  this  continued  polemic  against  the  pope- 
dom and  false  teachers,  we  must  not  omit  to  mention  some 
characteristic  controversial  wi'itings,  provoked  from  him 
by  his  indignation  at  the  attacks  on  Christianity  by  Jews, 
nay,  by  their  seduction  of  many  Christians.  As  early  as 
1538,  a  strange  rumour  of  a  '  Jewish  rabble '  in  Moravia— 
a  country  rich  in  sectaries— having  induced  Christians  to 
accept  the  Mosaic  law,  had  called  forth  from  him  a  public 
'Letter  against  the  Sabbathers.'  He  launched  out  with 
vehemence  against  them  in  1543  in  some  further  tracts, 
inveighing  mamly  agamst  the  dirty  insults  and  savage 
blasphemies  which  the  brazen-faced  Jews  dared  to  employ 
towards  Christ  and  Christians,  and  also  against  the  usurers, 
in  whose  toils  the  Christians  were  ensnared.  He  declared 
even  that  their  synagogues,  the  scene  of  their  blasphemies 
and  calumnies,  should  be  burnt,  and  they  themselves  com- 
pelled to  take  to  honest  handicraft,  or  be  hunted  from  the 
country. 

In  the  grand  and  beautiful  labour  of  his  life,  the 
German  translation  of  the  Bible,  he  was  busily  occupied 
until  his  death.  After  the  second  chief  edition  had  appeared, 
in  1541,  he  endeavoured  to  improve,  at  least  in  some 
points,  those  which  followed  in  1543  and  1545.  He  medi- 
tated also  revising  and  fm^ther  improving  the  most  important 
of  his  sermons,  which  have  been  left  to  posterity.  After 
having  undertaken  this  task  in  1540  with  a  number  of 
them,  he  caused  three  years  later  the  '  Summer-Postills,' 
which  Both  had  previously  edited  and  brought  out,  to  be  pub- 
lished in  a  new  form  by  his  colleague  Cruciger.  This  work 
was  now  completed  by  the  addition  of  his  sermons  on  the 
Epistles. 

We  have  already  seen  how  earnestly,  even  before  the 
great  end  should  come,  Luther  longed  for  his  eternal  rest, 
and  for  release  from  the  struggles  and  labours  of  his  earthly 
life,  and  the  burden  of  his  bodily  suffering.  He  spoke  of 
his  death  with  calmness  but  with  deep  earnestness,  and, 


PROGRESS  AND  INTERNAL    TROUBLES.  533 

indeed,  with  a  touch  of  humour  which  pained  those  who 
heard  him  speak,  or  read  his  writings.  Thus,  when  in 
March  1544  the  Elector's  wife,  Sybil,  asked  him  'anxiously 
and  diligently '  about  his  own  health  and  that  of  his  wife 
and  children,  he  answered  :  *  Thank  God,  we  are  well,  and 
better  than  we  deserve  of  God.  But  no  wonder,  if  I  am 
sometimes  shaky  in  the  head.  Old  age  is  creeping  on  me, 
which  in  itself  is  cold  and  unsightly,  and  I  am  ill  and 
weak.  The  pitcher  goes  to  the  well  until  it  breaks.  I 
have  lived  long  enough ;  God  grant  me  a  happy  end,  that 
this  useless  body  may  reach  His  people  beneath  the  earth, 
and  go  to  feed  the  worms.  Consider  that  I  have  seen  the 
best  that  I  shall  ever  see  on  earth.  For  it  looks  as  if  evil 
times  were  coming.     God  help  his  own.     Amen.' 


534 


CHAPTEE  YII. 

luther's  later  life  :  domestic  and  personal  details. 

Frequently  as  Luther  complained  of  his  old  age  and  ever- 
increasing  weakness,  lassitude,  and  uselessness,  his  writings 
and  letters  give  evidence  not  only  of  an  indomitable  power 
and  unquenchable  ardour,  but  also,  and  often  enough,  of 
those  cheerful,  merry  moods,  which  rose  superior  to  all  his 
sufferings,  disappointments,  and  anger.  He  himself  de- 
clared that  his  many  enemies,  especially  the  sectaries,  who 
were  always  attacking  him,  always  made  him  young  again. 
The  true  source  of  his  strength  he  found  in  his  Lord  and 
Saviour,  Whose  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness,  and 
to  Whom  he  clung  with  a  firm  and  tranquil  faith.  To 
this,  indeed,  we  must  add  one  particularly  favourable 
influence,  in  regard  to  his  life  and  calling,  which  had  been 
awakened  since  his  marriage.  In  speaking  of  his  family, 
his  wife,  and  his  children,  he  is  always  full  of  thanks  to 
God ;  his  heart  swells  with  emotion,  and  he  breathes  amid 
his  heated  labours  and  struggles  a  fresh  and  bracing  air. 
Just  as,  during  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  he  had  pointed  out 
encouragingly  to  the  Elector  the  happy  Paradise  which  God 
had  allowed  to  bloom  for  him  in  his  little  boys  and  girls, 
so  he  himself  was  permitted  to  experience  and  enjoy  this 
Paradise  at  home.  In  his  domestic  no  less  than  in  his 
public  life  he  saw  a  vocation  marked  out  for  him  by  God  ; 
not,  indeed,  as  if  he,  the  Reformer,  had  here  any  peculiar 
path  of  life,  or  exceptional  duties  to  perform,  but  so  that 
in  that  holy  estate  ordained  for  all  men,  however  desi3ised 
by  arrogant  monks  and  priests,  and  dishonoured  by  the 


LUTHER'S  LATER  LIFE. 


535 


Fig.  47. — LuTHEK.     (From  a  portrait  by  Cranach,  in  his  Album, 
at  Berlin.) 


536  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

sensual,  he  felt  himself  called  on  to  serve  God,  as  was  the 
duty  of  all  men  and  all  Christians  alike,  and  to  enjoy  the 
blessings  which  God  had  given  him. 

Five  children  were  now  growing  up.  The  eldest,  John, 
or  Häuschen  (Jack),  was  followed,  during  the  troublous 
days  of  1527,  by  his  first  little  daughter,  Elizabeth.  Eight 
months  after,  as  he  told  a  friend,  she  already  said  good-bye 
to  him,  to  go  to  Christ,  through  death  to  life ;  and  he  was 
forced  to  marvel  how  sick  at  heart,  nay,  almost  womanish, 
he  felt  at  her  departure.  In  May  1529  he  was  comforted 
to  seme  extent  by  the  birth  of  a  little  Magdalene  or  Lenchen 
(Lena).  Then  followed  the  boys:  Martin  in  1531,  and 
Paul  in  1533.  The  former  was  born  only  a  few  days— if 
not  the  very  day— before  the  feast  of  St.  Martin,  and  the 
birthday  of  his  father ;  hence  he  received  the  same  name. 
His  son  Paul  he  named  in  memory  of  the  great  Apostle,  to 
whom  he  owed  so  much.  At  his  baptism  he  expressed  the 
hope  that  *  perhaps  the  Lord  God  might  train  up  in  him  a 
new  enemy  of  the  Pope  or  the  Turks.'  The  youngest  child 
was  a  little  daughter,  Margaret,  who  was  born  in  1534. 

His  family  included  also  an  aunt  of  his  wife,  Magdalene 
von  Bora.  She  had  been  formerly  a  nun  in  the  same 
cloister  as  her  niece,  where  she  had  filled  the  post  of  head- 
nurse.  She  lived  among  Luther's  children  like  a  beloved 
grandmother.  It  was  she  whom  Luther  meant  by  the 
*  Aunt  Lena,'  of  whom  he  wrote  to  his  little  Hans  in  1530 
saying,  *  Give  her  a  kiss  from  me ; '  and  when  in  1537  he 
was  able  to  travel  homewards  from  Schmalkald,  where  he 
had  been  in  such  imminent  peril  of  death,  he  wrote  to  his 
wife :  '  Let  the  dear  little  children,  together  with  Aunt 
Lena,  thank  their  true  Father  in  Heaven.'  She  died, 
probably,  shortly  afterwards.  Luther  comforted  her  with 
the  words  :  *  You  will  not  die,  but  sleep  away  as  in  a  cradle, 
and  when  the  morning  dawns,  you  wiU  rise  and  live  for 
ever.' 

At   this  time    Luther   had  two  orphan    nieces    living 


LUTHER'S  LATER  LIFE. 


537 


Blflil-]^ 


538  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

with  him,  Lene  and  Else  Kaufmann  of  Mansfeld,  sisters  of 
Cyriac,  whom  we  found  with  him  at  Coburg,  and  also  a  young 
relative,  of  whom  we  know  nothing  further  than  that  her  name 
was  Anna.  Lene  was  betrothed  in  1538  to  the  worthy  trea- 
surer of  the  University  of  Wittenberg,  Ambrosius  Berndt,  and 
Luther  gave  the  wedding.  He  used  also  from  time  to  time 
to  have  some  young  student  nephews  at  his  house. 

When  his  boys  grew  up  and  the  time  came  for  them  to 


Fig.  49. —The  "  Luthek-House  "  (previously  the  Convent),  before 
its  recent  restoration. 


learn,  he  had  a  resident  tutor  for  them.  For  his  own 
assistance  he  engaged  a  young  man  as  amanuensis ;  thus 
we  find  Veit  Dietrich  with  him  at  Coburg  in  this  capacity. 
We  hear  afterwards  of  a  young  pupil— indeed,  of  two  or 
more — who  lived  with  Dietrich  at  Luther's  house.  This 
seems,  however,  to  have  somewhat  overtaxed  his  wife ;  in 
the  autumn  of  1534  Dietrich  left  his  house  on  that 
account. 

Luther,   like    other    professors,   used   to   take   several 


LUTHER'S  LATER  LIFE. 


539 


students  for  payment  to  his  table.  Among  these  there 
were  men  of  riper  years  who  were  eager,  nevertheless,  to 
share  in  the  studies  at  Wittenberg,  and,  above  all  things, 
to  make  his  acquaintance.  Besides  this,  his  house  was 
open  to  a  number  of  guests,  theologians  and  others,  of  high 
or  low  degree,  who  called  on  him  in  passing  through  the 
town. 

The  dwelling-place  of  this  large  and  growing  household 


Fig.  50.     LrTiiEK's  Room. 


was  a  portion  of  the  former  Convent.  The  Elector  John 
Frederick  had  assigned  it  to  Luther  for  his  own.  The 
house,  which  had  not  been  completed  when  the  Reforma- 
tion began,  was  still  unfinished  when  Luther  went  there, 
and  it  needed  many  improvements.  The  present  richer 
architectural  features  of  the  building  date  from  a  very 
recent  restoration.  It  stood  against  the  town  wall,  and 
was  protected  ])y  the  Elbe.  His  own  small  study  looked 
out    in    this   direction,    and    formed  a   gable   above   the 


540  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

water  of  the  moat;  though,  as  he  complained  in  1530, 
it  was  threatened  with  alterations  for  military  purposes, 
and  perhaps  during  his  lifetime  fell  a  prey  to  them.  Only 
one  of  the  larger  rooms  of  the  house,  situated  in  front,  has 
been  preserved  in  the  recollection  of  posterity,  and  is  now 
called  Luther's  room.  It  was  probably  the  chief  sitting- 
room  of  the  family. 

The  young  couple  possessed  at  first  a  very  slender 
maintenance.  Neither  of  them  had  any  private  means. 
When,  in  1527,  Luther  was  lying  apparently  on  his  death- 
bed, he  had  nothing  to  leave  his  wife  but  the  cups  which 
had  been  given  him  as  presents,  and  it  happened  that  he 
was  obliged  to  pawn  even  these  to  find  money  for  their 
immediate  wants. 

By  degrees,  however,  his  income  and  property  in- 
creased. His  salary  as  professor  at  the  university  (he 
received  no  honorarium  for  his  lectures)  was  raised  on  his 
marriage  by  the  Elector  John  from  100  to  200  gulden,  and 
John  Frederick  added  100  gulden  more — the  value  of  a 
gulden  at  that  time  being  equal  to  about  16  marks  of  the 
present  German  money.  He  received,  also,  regular  pay- 
ments in  kind.  Now  and  then  he  had  a  special  present 
from  the  Elector,  such  as  a  fine  piece  of  cloth,  a  cask  of 
wine,  or  some  venison,  with  greetings  from  his  Highness. 
In  1536  John  Frederick  sent  him  two  casks  of  wine, 
saying  that  it  was  that  year's  growth  of  his  vineyards,  and 
that  Luther  would  find  how  good  it  was  when  he  tasted  it. 
Luther's  share  of  his  father's  property  was  250  gulden, 
which  he  was  to  be  paid  later  in  small  instalments  by  his 
brother  James,  who  was  heir  to  the  real  estate.  In  1539 
Bugenhagen  brought  him  from  Denmark  an  ojffering  of 
100  gulden,  and  two  years  afterwards  the  Danish  king  gave 
him  and  his  children  an  allowance  of  50  gulden  a  year. 
Luther  never  troubled  himself  much  about  his  expenses, 
and  gave  with  generous  liberality  what  he  earned.  His  wife 
kept  things  together  for  the  household,  managed  it  with 


LUTHER'S  LATER  LITE.  541 

business-like  energy  and  talent,  and  tried  to  add  to  their 
income. 

They  enlarged  their  garden  by  buying  some  more  strips 
adjoining  it,  as  well  as  a  field.  In  1540  Luther  purchased 
for  610  gulden  from  a  brother  of  his  wife,  who  was  in  needy 
circumstances,  the  small  farm  of  Ziilsdorf  or  Zulsdorf, 
between  Leipzig  and  Borna — it  must  not  be  confounded 
with  another  village  of  the  same  name.  The  market  at 
Wittenberg  being  usually  very  poorly  furnished,  his  wife 
sought  to  supply  their  domestic  wants  by  her  own  economy. 
She  planted  the  garden  with  all  sorts  of  trees,  among  these 
even  mulberry-trees  and  fig-trees,  and  she  cultivated  also 
hops;  and  there  \yas  a  small  fish-pond.  This  little  pro- 
perty she  loved  to  manage  and  superintend  in  person.  At 
Wittenberg  she  brewed,  as  was  then  the  custom,  their  own 
beer,  the  Convent  being  i^rivileged  in  that  respect.  We  hear 
of  her  keeping  a  number  of  pigs,  and  arranging  for  their 
sale.  Luther  incidentally  .makes  mention  of  a  coachman 
among  his  other  servants.  Finally,  in  1541,  Luther  pur- 
chased a  small  house  near  his  residence  at  the  Convent, 
fearing  that  he  would  have  to  give  up  the  latter  entirely 
for  the  work  of  fortification,  and  thus  be  prevented  from 
leaving  it  to  his  wife.  He  was  only  obliged  in  ten  years  to 
pay  off  a  portion  of  the  purchase  money. 

In  this  happy  married  life  and  home  the  great  Eeformer 
found  his  peace  and  refreshment ;  in  it  he  found  his  voca- 
tion as  a  man,  a  husband,  and  a  father.  Speaking  from 
his  own  experience  he  said  :  *  Next  to  God's  Word,  the 
world  has  no  more  precious  treasure  than  holy  matrimony. 
God's  best  gift  is  a  pious,  cheerful,  God-fearing,  home- 
keeping  wife,  wdth  whom  you  may  live  peacefully,  to  whom 
you  can  entrust  your  goods,  and  body,  and  life.'  He  speaks 
of  the  married  state,  moreover,  as  a  life  which,  if  rightly 
led,  is  full  to  overflowing  of  good  works.  He  knows,  on 
the  other  hand,  of  many  *  stubborn  and  strange  couples, 
who  neither  care   for  their  children,  nor  love  each  other 


542  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

from  their  hearts.'  Such  people,  he  said,  were  not  human 
beings ;  they  made  their  homes  a  hell. 

In  his  language  about  this  life  and  his  own  conduct  in 
it,  there  is  no  trace  of  sentimentality,  exaggerated  emotion, 
or  artificial  idealism.  It  is  a  strong,  sturdy,  and,  as  many 
have  thought,  a  somewhat  rough  genuineness  of  nature, 
but  at  the  same  time  full  of  tenderness,  purity,  and  fervour ; 
and  with  it  is  combined  that  heartfelt  and  loyal  devotion 
to  his  Heavenly  Creator  and  Lord,  and  to  His  Will  and 
His  commands,  which  marked  the  character  of  Luther  to 
the  last. 

With  regard  to  his  children,  Luther  had  resolved  from 
the  moment  of  their  birth  to  consecrate  them  to  God,  and 
wean  them  from  a  wicked,  corrupt,  and  accursed  world. 
In  several  of  his  letters  he  entreats  his  friends  with  great 
earnestness  to  stand  godfather  to  one  of  his  children,  and  to 
help  the  poor  little  heathen  to  become  a  Christian,  and  pass 
from  the  death  of  sin  to  a  holy  and  blessed  regeneration. 
In  making  this  request  of  a  young  Bohemian  nobleman, 
then  staying  in  his  house,  on  behalf  of  his  son  Martin,  he 
grew  so  earnest  that,  to  the  surprise  of  all  present,  his 
voice  trembled  ;  this,  he  said,  was  caused  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  God,  for  the  cause  he  was  pleading  was  God's, 
and  it  demanded  reverence.  And  yet,  in  the  simple, 
natural,  innocent,  and  happy  ways  of  children  he  recog- 
nised the  precious  handiwork  of  God  and  His  protecting 
Hand.  He  loved  to  watch  the  games  and  pleasures  of  his 
little  ones ;  all  they  did  was  so  spontaneous  and  so  natural. 
Children,  he  said,  believe  so  simply  and  undoubtedly  that 
God  is  in  Heaven  and  is  their  God  and  their  dear  Father, 
and  that  there  is  everlasting  life.  On  hearing  one  day  one 
of  his  children  prattling  about  this  life  and  of  the  great  joy 
in  Heaven  with  eating,  and  dancing,  and  so  forth,  he  said, 
'  Their  life  is  the  most  blessed  and  the  best ;  they  have 
none  but  pure  thoughts  and  happy  imaginations.'  At  the 
sight  of  his  little  children  seated  round  the  table,  he  called 


LUTHER'S  LATER  LIFE.  543 

to  mind  the  exhortation  of  Jesus,  that  we  must  *  become  as 
Httle  children  ; '  and  added,  *  Ah !  dear  God  !  Thou  hast 
done  chmisily  in  exalting  children — such  poor  little  simple- 
tons— so  high.  Is  it  just  and  right  that  Thou  shouldst 
reject  the  wise,  and  receive  the  foolish  ?  But  God  our 
Lord  has  purer  thoughts  than  we  have ;  He  must,  there- 
fore, refine  us,  as  said  the  fanatics ;  He  must  hew  great 
boughs  and  chips  from  us,  before  He  makes  such  children 
and  little  simpletons  of  us.* 

In  what  a  childlike  spirit  Luther  understood  to  talk  to 
his  children  is  shown  by  his  letter  from  Coburg  to  his  little 
Hans,  then  fourteen  years  old.  He  himself  taught  them 
to  pray,  to  sing,  and  to  repeat  the  Catechism.  Of  his  little 
daughter  Margaret  he  could  tell  one  of  her  godfathers  how 
she  had  learnt  to  sing  hymns  when  only  four  years 
old.  His  hymn  *  From  the  highest  Heaven  I  come,'  the 
freshest,  most  joyful,  most  childlike  song  that  has  ever 
been  heard  from  children's  lips  at  "Christmas,  he  composed 
as  a  father  who  celebrated  that  joyous  festival  with  his  own 
children.  It  appeared  first  in  the  year  1535.  He  might 
well,  after  the  manner  of  old  Festival  plays,  have  let  an 
angel  step  in  among  them,  who  in  the  opening  verses 
should  bring  them  the  good  tidings  in  the  Gospel,  to  which 
they  should  answer  with  *  Therefore  let  us  all  be  joyful.' 
The  words  *  Therefore  I  am  always  joyful,  Free  to  dance 
and  free  to  sing,'  call  to  mind  an  old  custom  of  accompany- 
ing the  Christmas  hymn  with  a  dance. 

Luther  warned  against  all  outbursts  of  passion  and  undue 
severity  towards  children,  and  carefully  guarded  himself 
against  such  errors,  remembering  the  bitter  experiences  of 
his  own  childhood  in  that  respect.  But  he  could  be  angry 
and  strict  enough  when  occasion  "required ;  he  used  to  say 
he  would  rather  have  a  dead  son  than  a  bad  one. 

There  was  no  really  good  school  at  Wittenberg  for  his 
boys,  and  Luther  himself  could  not  devote  as  much  time  to 
them  as  they  required.     He  took  a  resident  tutor  for  them. 


544  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

a  young  theologian.  His  boy  John  nevertheless  gave  some 
trouble  with  his  teaching  and  bringing  up.  His  father, 
contrary  to  his  own  wishes,  seems  to  have  been  too  weak, 
and  his  mother's  fondness  for  her  first-born  seems  to  have 
somewhat  spoilt  him.  Luther  gave  the  boy  over  afterwards 
to  his  friend  Mark  Crodel,  the  Eector  of  the  school  at  Torgau, 
whom  he  held  in  high  respect  as  a  grammarian,  and  as  a 
pedagogue  of  grave  and  strict  morals. 

His  favourite  child  was  little  Lena,  a  pious,  gentle, 
affectionate  little  girl,  and  devoted  to  him  with  her  whole 
heart.  A  charming  picture  of  her  remains,  by  Cranach,  a 
friend  of  the  family.  But  she  died  in  the  bloom  of 
early  youth,  on  September  20,  1542,  after  a  long  and 
severe  illness.  The  grief  he  had  felt  at  the  loss  of  his 
daughter  Elizabeth  was  now  renewed  and  intensified. 
When  she  was  lying  on  her  sick-bed,  he  said,  *  I  love  her 
very  much  indeed  ;  but,  dear  God,  if  it  is  Thy  will  to  take 
her  hence,  I  would  gladly  she  were  with  Thee.'  To  Magdalene 
herself  he  said,  '  Lena,  dear,  my  little  daughter,  thou 
wouldst  love  to  remain  here  with  thy  father ;  art  thou 
willing  to  go  to  that  other  Father?'  'Yes,  dear  father,' 
she  answered;  'just  as  God  wills.'  And  when  she  was 
dying,  he  fell  on  his  knees  beside  her  bed,  wept  bitterly, 
and  prayed  for  her  redemption,  and  she  fell  asleep  in  his 
arms.  As  she  lay  in  her  coffin,  he  looked  at  her  and 
exclaimed,  *  Ah  !  my  darling  Lena,  thou  wilt  rise  again  and 
shine  like  a  star— yea,  as  the  sun  ;  '  and  added,  '  I  am 
happy  in  the  spirit,  but  in  the  flesh  I  am  very  sorrowful. 
The  flesh  will  not  be  subdued :  parting  troubles  one  above 
measure ;  it  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  think  that  she  is 
assuredly  in  peace,  and  that  all  is  well  with  her,  and  yet  to 
be  so  sad.'  To  the  mourners  he  said,  '  I  have  sent  a  saint 
to  Heaven  :  could  mine  be  such  a  death  as  hers,  I  would 
welcome  such  a  death  this  moment.'  He  expressed  the 
same  sorrow,  and  the  same  exultation  in  his  letters  to  his 
friends.     To  Jonas  he  wrote :  '  You  will  have  heard  that 


LUTHER'S  LATER  LIFE. 


545 


my  dearest  daughter  Magdalene  is  born  again  in  the  ever- 
lasting kingdom  of  Christ.  Although  I  and  my  wife  ought 
only  to   thank   God   with  joy   for   her   happy  departure, 


Fig.  51.— Luther's  Daughter  'Lene.'     (From  Cranach's  portrait.) 

whereby  she  has  escaped  the  power  of  the  world,  the  flesh, 
the  Turks,  and  the  devil,  yet  so  strong  is  natural  love  that 
we  cannot  bear  it  without  sobs  and  sighs  from  the  heart, 

N  N 


546  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS, 

without  a  bitter  sense  of  death  in  ourselves.  So  deeply 
printed  on  our  hearts  are  her  ways,  her  words,  her  gestures, 
whether  alive  or  dying,  that  even  Christ's  death  cannot 
drive  away  this  agony.'  His  little  Hans,  whom  his  sick 
sister  longed  to  see  once  more,  he  had  sent  for  from  Torgau 
a  fortnight  before  she  died :  he  wrote  for  that  purpose  to 
Crodel,  saying  '  I  would  not  have  my  conscience  reproach 
me  afterwards  for  having  neglected  anything.'  But  when 
several  weeks  later,  about  Christmas-time,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  grief  and  the  tender  words  which  his  mother  had 
spoken  to  him,  a  desire  came  over  the  boy  to  leave  Torgau 
and  live  at  home,  his  father  exhorted  him  to  conquer  his 
sorrow  like  a  man,  not  to  increase  by  his  own  the  grief  of 
his  mother,  and  to  obey  God,  who  had  appointed  him, 
through  his  parents'  direction,  to  live  at  Torgau. 

The  care  of  the  children  and  of  the  whole  household 
fell  to  the  share  of  Frau  Luther,  and  her  husband  could 
trust  her  with  it  in  perfect  confidence.  She  was  a 
woman  of  strong,  ruling,  practical  nature,  who  enjoyed  hard 
work  and  plenty  of  it.  She  served  her  husband  at  all 
times,  after  her  own  manner,  with  faithful  and  affectionate 
devotion.  He  must  often  have  felt  grateful,  amidst  his 
physical  and  mental  sufferings,  and  the  violent  storms  and 
temptations  that  vexed  his  soul,  that  a  helpmate  of  such  a 
sound  constitution,  such  strong  nerves,  and  such  a  clever, 
sensible  mind  should  have  fallen  to  his  share. 

Luther  lived  with  her  in  thankful  love  and  harmony  ; 
nor  have  even  the  calumnies  of  malicious  enemies  been  able 
to  cast  a  shadow  of  doubt  upon  the  perfect  concord  of  his 
married  life.  In  his  *  Table  Talk  '  he  says  of  her  :  *  I  am, 
thank  God,  very  well,  for  I  have  a  pious,  faithful  wife,  on 
whom  a  man  may  safely  rest  his  heart.'  And  again  he 
said  once  to  her,  '  Katie,  you  have  a  pious  husband,  who 
loves  you  ;  you  are  an  empress.'  In  words  now  grave,  now 
humorous,  he  told  her  of  his  tender  love  for  her ;  and  how 
trustful  and  open-hearted  were  their  relations  to  each  other 


LUTHER'S  LATER  LIFE.  547 

we  gather  from  the  way  in  which  he  mocks  and  occasionally 
teases  her  for  her  little  weaknesses.  In  later  life  and  in  his 
last  letters  he  calls  her  his  '  heartily  heloved  housewife ' 
and  his  '  darling,'  and  he  often  signs  hinis  jlf  '  your  love ' 
and  *  your  old  love,'  and  again  '  your  dear  lord.'  Still  he 
said  frankly  and  quietly  that  his  original  suspicion  that 
Catharine  was  proud  was  well-founded.  In  some  of  his 
letters  he  speaks  of  her  as  his  *  lord  Katie '  and  his 
*  gracious  wife,'  and  of  himself  as  her  *  willing  servant.' 
Once  he  declared  that  if  he  had  to  marry  again,  he  would 
carve  an  obedient  wife  out  of  stone,  as  he  despaired  of 
finding  obedience  in  wives.  He  spoke  also  of  the  talkative- 
ness of  his  Katie.  Eeferring  to  her  loving  but  over-anxious 
care  for  him  on  his  last  journey,  he  called  her  a  holy,  careful 
woman.  From  her  thrift  and  energy  she  gained  from  him 
the  nicknames  of  Lady  Zulsdorf,  and  Lady  of  the  Pigmarket ; 
thus  one  of  his  last  letters  is  addressed  to  *  my  heartily 
beloved  housewife,  Catharine,  Lady  Luther,  Lady  Doctor, 
Lady  Zulsdorf,  Lady  of  the  Pigmarket,  and  whatever  else 
she  may  be.' 

The  *  careful '  Catharine  was  not  permitted  to  check  the 
kind  liberality  of  her  husband.  His  friend  Mathesius  tells 
us,  of  their  early  married  Hfe,  *  A  poor  man  made  him  a 
pitiful  tale  of  distress,  and  having  no  cash  with  him,  Luther 
came  to  his  wife— she  bemg  then  confined— for  the  god- 
parents' money,  and  brought  it  to  the  poor  man,  saying,  '  God 
is  rich.  He  will  supply  what  is  wanted.'  Afterwards,  how- 
eA^er,  he  grew  more  careful,  seeing  how  often  he  was  imposed 
upon.  '  Eogues,'  he  said,  '  have  sharpened  my  wits.'  An 
example  of  how  particular,  nay  anxious,  he  was  never 
even  to  let  it  seem  that  he  sought  for  presents  or  other 
profit  for  himself,  was  given  in  his  letter  to  Amsdorf, 
declining  a  gift  of  venison.  He  wrote  once  to  the  Elector 
John,  who  had  sent  him  an  offering :  *  I  have  unfortunately 
more,  especially  from  your  Highness,  than  I  can  con- 
scientiously keep.     As  a  preacher,  it  is  not  fitting  for  me  to 

N  n2 


548  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

enjoy  a  superfluity,  nor  do  I  covet  it ;  .  .  .  therefore  I 
beseech  your  Highness  to  wait  until  I  ask  of  you.'  In  1539, 
when  Bugenhagen  brought  to  him  the  hundred  gulden  from 
the  King  of  Denmark,  he  wished  to  give  him  half  of  it,  for 
the  service  Bugenhagen  had  rendered  him  during  his 
absence.  For  his  office  of  preacher  in  the  town  church  he 
never  received  any  payment ;  the  town  from  time  to  time 
made  him  a  present  of  wine  from  the  council-cellar,  and 
lime  and  stones  for  building  his  house.  For  his  writings 
he  received  nothing  from  the  publishers.  Against  over- 
anxious cares  and  troubles,  and  setting  her  heart  too  much 
on  worldly  possessions,  he  earnestly  cautioned  his  wife,  and 
insisted  that  amid  the  numerous  household  matters  she 
should  not  neglect  to  read  the  Bible.  Once  in  1535  he 
promised  her  fifty  gulden  if  she  would  read  the  Bible 
through,  whereupon,  as  he  told  a  friend,  it  became  a  *  very 
serious  matter  to  her.' 

Luther  frequently  assisted  his  wife  in  her  household. 
He  was  very  fond  of  gardening  and  agriculture,  and  we 
have  seen  how  he  sent  commissions  to  friends  for  stocking 
his  garden  at  Wittenberg.  On  one  occasion,  when  going  to 
fish  with  his  wife  in  their  little  pond,  he  noticed  with  joy 
how  she  took  more  pleasure  in  her  few  fish  than  many  a 
nobleman  did  in  his  great  lakes  with  many  hundred  draughts 
of  fishes.  In  1539  he  had  to  order  a  chest  at  Torgau  for 
his  *  lord  Katie,'  for  their  store  of  house-linen.  Of  the 
handsome  and  elaborate  way  in  which  Catharine  thought 
of  ornamenting  the  exterior  of  their  house — the  home  of 
her  illustrious  husband — a  fine  specimen  remains  in  the 
door  of  the  Luther-haus  at  "Wittenberg.  Luther  wrote,  by 
her  wish,  to  a  friend  at  Pirna  in  1539,  pastor  Lauterbach, 
about  a  '  carved  house- door,'  for  the  width  of  which  she  sent 
the  measurement.  The  door,  carved  in  sandstone,  and 
bearing  the  date  1540,  has  on  one  side  Luther's  bust  and 
on  the  other  his  crest,  and  below  are  two  small  seats,  built 
there  according  to  the  custom  of  the  times. 


LUTHER'S   LATER   LIFE. 


549 


In  view  of  his  approaching  death,  Luther  wished,  in 
1542,  to  provide  for  his  devoted  wife  hy  a  will.  He  left  her 
for  her  lifetime  and  absolute  property  the  little  farm  of  Zuls- 


[^,IM:  IAi,Wiiirl''il(r 


OvK<  r(v- 


Fig.  52.— Door  of  Luther's  House  at  Wittenberg. 

dorf,  the  small  house  at  Wittenberg  (already  mentioned), 
and  his  goblets  and  other  treasures,  such  as  rings,  chains, 
&c  ,  which  he  valued  at  about  1,000  gulden.     In  doing  so,  he 


550  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS, 

thanked  her  for  having  been  to  hun  a  *  pious,  true  wife  at 
all  times,  full  of  loving,  tender  care  towards  him,  and  for 
having  borne  to  him  and  trained,  by  God's  blessing,  five 
children  surviving.'  And  he  wished  to  provide  therewith 
that  she  'must  not  receive  from  the  children,  but  the 
children  from  her ;  that  they  must  honour  and  obey  her, 
as  God  hath  commanded.'  He  further  bade  her  pay  off 
the  debt  which  was  still  owing  (probably  for  the  house), 
amounting  to  about  450  gulden,  because,  with  the  exception 
of  his  few  treasures,  he  had  no  money  to  leave  her.  In 
making  this  provision  he  no  doubt  considered  that,  accord- 
ing to  the  law,  the  inheritance  of  a  married  woman  who 
had  formerly  been  a  nun  might  be  disputed,  together  with 
the  legitimacy  of  her  marriage.  Luther  did  not  wish  to 
bind  himself  in  his  will  to  legal  forms.  He  besought  the 
Elector  graciously  to  protect  his  bequest,  and  concluded  his 
will  with  these  proud  words  : 

'  Finally,  seeing  I  do  not  use  legal  forms,  for  which  I 
have  my  own  reasons,  I  desire  all  men  to  take  these  words 
as  mine— a  man  known  openly  in  heaven,  on  earth,  and  in 
hell  also,  who  has  enough  reputation  or  authority  to  be 
trusted  and  believed  better  than  any  notary.  To  me,  a 
poor,  unworthy,  miserable  sinner,  God,  the  Father  of  all 
mercy,  has  entrusted  the  Gospel  of  His  dear  Son,  and  has 
made  me  true  and  faithful  therein,  and  has  so  preserved 
and  found  me  hitherto,  that  through  me  many  in  this 
world  have  received  the  Gospel,  and  hold  me  as  a  teacher 
of  the  truth,  despite  of  the  Pope's  ban,  of  emperor,  king, 
princes,  priests,  and  all  the  wrath  of  the  devil.  Let  them 
believe  me  also  in  this  small  matter,  especially  as  this  is 
my  hand,  not  altogether  unknown.  In  hope  that  it  will  be 
enough  for  men  to  say  and  prove  that  this  is  the  earnest, 
deliberate  meaning  of  Dr.  Martin  Luther,  God's  notary  and 
witness  in  his  Gospel,  confirmed  by  his  own  hand  and  seal.' 

The  will  is  dated  the  day  of  the  Epiphany,  January  6, 
1542,  and   was  witnessed  by   Melancthon,   Cruciger,  and 


LUTHER'S  LATER  LIFE.  55I 

Bugenhagen,  whose  attestations  and  signatures  appear 
below.  After  Luther's  death,  John  Frederick  immediately 
ratified  it. 

As  regards  his  servants,  Luther  was  particularly  careful 
that  they  should  have  nothing  to  complain  of  against  him, 
for  the  devil,  he  said,  had  a  sharp  eye  upon  him,  to  be  able 
to  cast  a  slur  upon  his  teaching.  To  those  who  served  him 
faithfully,  he  was  ever  gentle,  grateful,  and  even  indulgent. 
There  was  a  certain  Wolfgang,  or  Wolf  Sieberger,  whom 
he  had  taken  as  early  as  1517  into  his  service  at  the  con- 
vent— an  honest  but  weak  man,  who  knew  of  no  other 
means  of  livelihood.  Him  Luther  retained  in  his  service 
throughout  his  life,  and  tried  to  make  some  provision  for 
his  future.  He  once  sought,  as  we  have  seen,  to  practise 
turning  with  him,  but  of  this  nothing  further  is  related. 
He  loved,  too,  to  joke  with  him  in  his  own  hearty  manner. 
When,  in  1534,  Wolf  built  a  fowling-floor  or  place  for 
catching  birds,  he  reprimanded  him  for  it  in  a  written 
indictment,  making  the  *  good,  honourable '  birds  them- 
selves lodge  a  complaint  against  him.  They  pray  Luther 
to  prevent  his  servant,  or  at  least  to  insist  upon  Wolf 
(who  was  a  sleepy  fellow),  strewing  grain  for  them  in  the 
evening,  and  then  not  rising  before  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning ;  else,  they  would  pray  to  God  to  make  him  catch 
in  the  day-time  frogs  and  snails  in  their  stead,  and  let  fleas 
and  other  insects  crawl  over  him  at  night ;  for  why  should 
not  Wolf  rather  employ  his  wrath  and  vindictiveness 
against  the  sparrows,  daws,  mice,  and  such  like  ?  When  a 
servant  named  Rischmann  parted  from  him,  in  1532,  after 
several  years  of  hard  work,  Luther  sent  word  to  his  wife  from 
Torgau,  where  he  was  then  staying  with  the  Elector,  to  dis- 
miss him  *  honourably,'  and  with  a  suitable  present.  *  Think,' 
he  wrote,  *  how  often  we  have  given  to  bad  men,  when 
all  has  been  lost ;  so  be  liberal,  and  do  not  let  such  a  good 

fellow  want Do  not  fail ;  for  a  goblet  is  there.  Think 

from  whom  you  got  it.     God  will  give  us  another,  I  know.' 


552  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

His  guests  valued  highly  his  company  and  conversation, 
especially  those  men  who  came  from  far  and  near  to  visit 
him.  Several  of  them  have  recorded  sayings  from  his  lips 
on  these  occasions.  Luther's  *  Table  Talk,'  which  we  pos- 
sess now  in  print,  is  founded  for  the  most  part  on  records 
given  by  Veit  Dietrich  and  Lauterbach  just  mentioned, 
who  before  his  call  to  Pu'na  in  1539,  when  deacon  at 
Wittenberg,  was  one  of  Luther's  closest  friends  and  his 
daily  guest.  These  memorials,  however,  have  been  elabor- 
ated and  recast  many  times,  by  a  strange  hand,  in  an 
arbitrary  and  unfortunate  manner.  A  publication  of  the 
original  text,  from  which  recently  a  diary  of  Lauterbach, 
of  the  year  1538,  has  already  appeared,  may  now  be  looked 
for.  Last,  but  not  least,  we  have  to  mention  John  Mathesius, 
who,  after  having  been  a  student  at  Wittenberg  in  1529, 
and  then  rector  of  the  school  at  Joachimsthal,  returned  to 
study  at  Wittenberg  from  1540  to  1542,  and  obtained  the 
honour  which  he  sought  for,  of  being  a  guest  at  Luther's 
table.  Deeply  impressed  as  he  was. by  his  intercourse  with 
the  Eeformer,  he  described  his  impressions  to  his  congre- 
gation at  Joachimsthal,  when  afterwards  their  pastor,  in 
addresses  from  the  pulpit,  which  were  printed,  and  gave 
them  a  sketch  of  Luther's  life,  with  numerous  anecdotes 
about  him.  He  thus  became  Luther's  first  biographer, 
and,  from  his  personal  intimacy  with  his  friend,  and  his 
own  true-heartedness,  fervour,  and  genuineness  of  nature, 
he  must  ever  remain  endeared  to  the  followers  and  admirers 
of  the  great  Eeformer. 

Mathesius  tells  us,  indeed,  how  Luther  used  often  to  sit 
at  table  wrapt  in  deep  and  anxious  thought,  and  would 
sometimes  keep  a  cloister-like  silence  throughout  the  meal. 
At  times  even  he  would  work  between  the  courses,  or  at 
meals  or  immediately  after,  dictate  sermons  to  friends  who 
had  to  preach,  but  who  wanted  practice  in  the  art.  But 
when  once  conversation  was  opened,  it  flowed  with  ease  and 
freedom,  and,  as  Mathesius  says,  even  merrily.     The  friends 


LUTHER'S  LATER   LIFE. 


553 


used  to  call  Luther's  speeches  then-  *  tahle-spice.'  His 
topics  varied  according  to  circumstances  and  the  occasion 
— things   spiritual  and  temj)oral ;   questions  of  faith  and 


Fig.  53. — Mathesius.     (From  an  old  woodcut.) 


conduct ;  the  works  of  God  and  the  deeds  of  man  ;  events 
past  and  present ;  hints  and  short  practical  suggestions  for 
ecclesiastical  life  and  office ;  and  apophthegms  of  worldly 


554  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

wisdom;  all  enriched  with  proverbs  of  every  kind  and 
German  rhymes,  which  Luther  had  a  great  aptitude  in 
composing.  Jocular  moods  were  mingled  with  deep  gravity 
and  even  indignation.  But  in  all  he  said,  as  in  all  he  did, 
he  was  guided  constantly  by  the  loftiest  principles,  by  the 
highest  considerations  of  morality  and  rehgious  truth,  and 
that  in  the  simple  and  straightforward  manner  which  was 
his  nature,  utterly  free  from  affectation  or  artificial  effort. 

In  these  his  discourses,  it  is  true,  as  in  his  writings  and 
letters,  nay,  sometimes  in  his  addresses  from  the  pulpit, 
expressions  and  remarks  fell  occasionally  from  his  lips 
which  sound  to  modern  ears  extremely  coarse.  His  was  a 
frank,  rugged  nature,  with  nothing  slippery,  nothing 
secretly  impure  about  it.  His  friends  and  guests  spoke  of 
the  *  chaste  lips  '  of  Luther  :  '  He  was,'  says  Mathesius,  *  a 
foe  to  unchastity  and  loose  talk.  As  long  as  I  have  been 
with  him  I  have  never  heard  a  shameful  word  fall  from  his 
lips.'  It  was  a  great  contrast  to  the  coarse  indecencies 
which  he  denounced  with  such  fierce  indignation  in  the 
monks,  his  former  brethren,  as  also  to  the  more  subtle 
indelicacies  which  were  practised  in  those  days  by  so  many 
elegant  Humanists  of  modern  culture,  both  ecclesiastics 
and  laymen. 

Luther's  conversation  was  also  remarkable  for  its 
freedom  from  any  spiteful  or  frivolous  gossip,  of  which  even 
at  Wittenberg  there  was  then  no  lack.  Of  such  scandal- 
mongers, who  sought  to  pry  out  evil  in  their  neighbours, 
Luther  used  frequently  to  say,  *  They  are  regular  pigs, 
who  care  nothing  about  the  roses  and  violets  in  the  garden, 
but  only  stick  their  snouts  into  the  dirt.' 

After  dinner  there  was  usually  music  with  the  guests 
and  children ;  sacred  and  secular  songs  were  sung,  together 
with  German  and  sometimes  old  Latin  hymns. 

Luther  also  had  a  bowling-alley  made  for  his  young 
friends,  where  they  would  disport  themselves  with  running 
and  jumping.     He  liked  to  throw  the  first  ball  himself,  and 


LUTHER'S  LATER  1 IFE.  555 

was  heartily  laughed  at  when  he  missed  the  mark.  He 
would  turn  then  to  the  young  folk,  and  remind  them  in  his 
pleasant  way  that  many  a  one  who  thought  he  would  do 
hetter,  and  knock  down  all  the  pins  at  once,  would  very 
likely  miss  them  all,  as  they  would  often  have  to  find  in 
future  their  life  and  calling. 

In  his  own  personal  relations  towards  God,  Luther 
followed  persistently  the  road  which  he  saw  revealed  by 
Christ,  and  which  he  pointed  out  to  others.  He  never  lost 
the  consciousness  of  his  own  unworthiness,  and  therefore 
unholiness.  In  this  consciousness  he  sought  refuge,  with 
simple  and  childlike  faith,  in  God's  love  and  mercy,  which 
thus  assured  him  of  forgiveness  and  salvation,  of  victory 
over  the. world  and  the  devil,  and  of  the  freedom  wherewith 
a  child  of  God  may  use  the  things  of  this  world.  He  clung 
fondly  to  simple,  childlike  forms  of  faith,  and  to  common 
rites  and  ordinances.  Every  morning  he  used  to  repeat 
with  his  children  the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Creed,  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  and  a  psalm.  '  I  do  this,'  he  says  in  one  of 
his  sermons,  '  in  order  to  keep  up  the  habit,  and  not  let  the 
mildew  grow  upon  me.'  He  took  part  faithfully  in  the 
church  services ;  he  who  was  wont  to  pray  so  unceasingly 
and  fervently  in  his  own  chamber  declared  that  praying  ui 
company  with  others  soothed  him  far  more  than  private 
prayer  at  home. 

Lofty,  nay  proud  as  was  the  self-assurance  he  expressed 
in  his  mission,  and  though  possessed,  as  Mathesius  says, 
of  all  the  heart  and  courage  of  a  true  man,  yet  he  was 
personally  of  a  very  plain  and  unasserting  manner: 
Mathesius  calls  him  the  most  humble  of  men,  always 
willing  to  follow  good  advice  from  others.  Like  a  brother 
he  dealt  with  the  lowliest  of  his  brethren,  while  mixing  at 
the  same  time  with  the  highest  in  the  land  with  the  most 
perfect  and  unconscious  simplicity.  Troubled  souls,  who 
complained  to  him  how  hard  they  found  it  to  possess  the 
faith  he  preached,  he  comforted  with  the  assurance  that  it 


556  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS, 

was  DO  easier  matter  for  himself,  and  that  he  had  to  pray 
God  daily  to  increase  his  faith.  His  saying,  '  A  great 
doctor  must  always  remain  a  pupil,'  was  meant  especially 
for  himself.  The  modesty  which  made  him  willing,  even 
in  the  early  days  of  his  reforming  labours,  to  yield  the  first 
place  to  his  younger  friend  Melancthon,  he  displayed  to  the 
end,  as  we  have  seen  in  reference  to  Melancthon' s  principal 
work,  the  '  Loci  Communes.'  Whenever  he  was  asked  for 
a  really  good  book  for  theological  studies  and  the  pure 
exposition  of  the  gospel,  he  named  the  Bible  first  and  then 
Melancthon' s  book.  During  the  Diet  at  Augsburg  we  heard 
how  highly  he  esteemed  the  words  even  of  a  Brenz,  in 
comparison  with  his  own.  Touching  Melancthon,  we  must 
add  an  earlier  public  utterance  of  Luther's,  dating  from 
1529:  *I  must  root  out,'  he  said,  'the  trunks  and  stems. 
....  I  am  the  rough  woodman  who  has  to  make  a  path, 
but  Philip  goes  quietly  and  peacefully  along  it,  builds  and 
plants,  sows  and  waters  at  his  pleasure.'  He  said  nothing 
of  how  much  others  depended  on  his  own  power  and  inde- 
pendence of  mind,  not  only  as  regarded  the  task  of  making 
the  path,  but  in  the  whole  business  of  planting  and  working, 
and  how  Melancthon  only  stamped  the  gold  which  Luther 
had  dug  up  and  melted  in  the  furnace.  The  later  years  of 
his  life  were  embittered  by  the  conviction,  gradually  forced 
upon  him,  that  his  former  strength  and  energy  had  deserted 
him.  His  remarks  on  this  subject  seem  often  exaggerated, 
but  they  were  certainly  meant  in  all  seriousness  :  he  felt  as 
he  did,  because  the  urgent  need  of  completing  his  task 
remained  so  vividly  impressed  upon  his  mind.  He  wished 
and  hoped  that  God  would  suffer  him — the  now  useless 
instrument  of  His  Word — to  stand  at  least  behind  the  doors 
of  His  kingdom.  He  wrote  to  Myconius,  when  the  latter 
was  dangerously  ill,  saying  that  his  friend  must  really 
survive  him  :  '  I  beg  this ;  I  will  it,  and  let  my  will  be  done, 
for  it  seeks  not  my  own  pleasure,  but  the  glory  of  God.' 
With  childlike  joy  he  recognised  God's  gifts  in  nature, 


((UK.     j^RSn 

LUTHER'S  LATER  LIEE.     \    ^  .557       ^. 

in  garden  and  Held,  i)lants  and  cattle.  This  joy  finds  con- 
stant expression  in  his  '  Table  Talk,'  and  even  in  his  ser- 
mons. It  was  chietiy  awakened  by  the  beauties  of  spring. 
With  sorrow  he  declares  it  to  be  the  well-earned  penalty  of 
his  past  sins  that  in  his  old  age  he  should  not  be  able,  as 
he  might  do  and  had  need  of  doing,  on  account  of  the 
burdens  of  business,  to  enjoy  the  gardens,  the  bud  and 
bloom  of  tree  and  flower,  and  the  song  of  the  birds.  *  We 
should  be  so  happy  in  such  a  Paradise,  if  only  there  were 
no  sin  and  death.'  But  he  looks  beyond  this  to  another 
and  a  heavenly  w^orld,  where  all  would  be  still  more  beau- 
tiful, and  where  an  everlasting  spring  would  reign  and 
abide. 

Among  all  the  gifts  which  God  has  bestowed  upon  us 
for  our  use  and  enjoyment,  music  was  to  him  the  most 
precious ;  he  even  assigned  to  it  the  highest  honour  next 
to  theology.  He  himself  had  considerable  talent  for  the 
art,  and  not  only  played  the  lute,  and  sang  melodiously 
with  his  seemingly  weak  but  penetrating  voice,  but  was 
able  even  to  compose.  He  valued  music  particularly  as 
the  means  of  driving  away  the  devil  and  his  temptations, . 
as  w^ell  as  for  its  softening  and  refining  influence.  *  The 
heart,'  he  said,  'grows  satisfied,  refreshed,  and  strength- 
ened by  music'  He  noticed,  as  a  wonder  wrought  by  God, 
how  the  air  was  able  to  give  forth,  by  a  slight  movement  of 
the  tongue  and  throat,  guided  by  the  mind,  such  sweet  and 
powerful  sounds  ;  and  what  an  infinite  variety  there  was 
of  voice  and  language  among  the  many  thousand  birds, 
and  still  more  so  among  men.  Luther's  best  and  most 
valued  means  of  natural  refreshment,  and  the  recreation  of 
his  mind  and  body,  remained  always  his  intercourse  and 
friendship  with  others—with  wife  and  children,  with 
his  friends  and  neighbours.  Such  was  his  own  experience, 
and  so  he  would  advise  the  sorrowful  who  sought  his  coun- 
sel in  like  manner  to  come  out  of  their  solitude.  He  saw 
in  this  intercourse  also  an  ordinance  of  Divine  wisdom  and 


558  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

love.  A  friendly  talk  and  a  good  merry  song  he  often 
declared  to  be  the  best  weapon  against  evil  and  sorrowful 
thoughts. 

About  his  own  bodily  care  and  enjoyment,  even  with 
all  his  conviction  of  Christian  liberty  and  his  hostility  to 
monkish  scruples  and  sanctity,  he  cared  very  little.  He 
was  content  with  simple  fare,  and  he  would  forget  to  eat 
and  drink  for  days  amid  the  press  of  work.  His  friends 
wondered  how  such  a  portly  frame  could  be  consistent  with 
such  a  very  meagre  diet,  and  not  one  of  his  hostile  con- 
temporaries has  ever  been  able  to  allege  against  him  that 
he  had  belied  by  his  own  conduct  the  zeal  with  which  he 
inveighed  against  the  immoderate  eating  and  drinking  of 
his  fellow-Germans  ;  but  he  preserved  his  Christian  liberty 
in  this  matter.  In  the  evenings  he  would  say  to  his  pupils 
at  the  supper-table,  '  You  young  fellows,  you  must  drink 
the  Elector's  health  and  mine,  the  old  man's,  in  a  bumper. 
We  must  look  for  our  pillows  and  bolsters  in  the  tankard.' 
And  in  his  lively  and  merry  entertainments  with  his  friends 
the  *  cup  that  cheers '  was  always  there.  He  could  even 
call  for  a  toast  when  he  heard  bad  news,  for  next  to  a 
fervent  Lord's  Prayer  and  a  good  heart,  there  was  no  better 
antidote,  he  used  to  say,  to  care. 

His  physical  sufferings  were  chiefly  confined  to  the 
pains  in  his  head,  which  never  wholly  left  him,  and  which 
increased  from  time  to  time,  with  fresh  attacks  of  giddiness 
and  fainting.  The  morning  was  always  his  worst  time. 
His  old  enemy,  moreover — the  stone— returned  in  1543 
with  alarming  severity.  Some  time  since  an  abscess  had 
appeared  on  his  left  leg,  which  seemed  at  the  time  to  have 
healed.  Finding  that  a  fresh  breaking  out  of  it  seemed  to 
relieve  his  head,  his  friend  Eatzeberger,  the  Elector's  phy- 
sician, induced  him  to  have  a  seton  applied,  and  the  issue 
thus  kept  open.  His  hair  became  white.  He  had  long 
been  speaking  of  himself  as  a  prematurely  old  man,  and 
quite  worn  out. 


LUTHERS  LATER  LIFE.  559 

In  spite  of  his  sufferings  he  retained  his  pecuHar  bearing, 
with  head  thrown  back  and  upturned  face.  His  features, 
especially  the  mouth,  now  showed  more  plainly  even  than 
in  earlier  life  the  calm  strength  acquired  by  struggles  and 
suffering.  The  pathos  which  later  portraits  have  often 
given  to  his  countenance  is  not  apparent  in  the  earlier 
ones,  but  rather  an  expression  of  melancholy.  The  deep 
glow  and  energy  of  his  spirit,  which  even  Cranach's  pencil 
has  failed  wholly  to  represent,  seems  to  have  found  chief 
expression  in  his  dark  eyes.  These  evidently  struck  the 
old  rector  of  Wittenberg,  Pollich,  and  the  legate  Caietan  at 
Augsburg ;  it  was  with  these  that,  on  his  arrival  at  Worms, 
the  legate  Aleander  saw  him  look  around  him  '  like  a 
demon ' ;  it  was  these  that  '  sparkled  like  stars '  on  the 
young  Swiss  Kessler,  so  that  he  could  '  hardly  endure  their 
gaze.'  After  his  death,  another  acquaintance  of  his  called 
them  '  falcon's  eyes ' ;  and  Melancthon  saw  in  the  brown 
pupils,  encircled  Ijy  a  yellow  ring,  the  keen,  courageous  eye 
of  a  lion. 

This  fire  in  Luther  never  died.  Under  the  pressure  of 
suffering  and  weakness,  it  only  burst  forth  when  stirred  by 
opposition  into  new  and  fiercer  flames.  It  became,  indeed, 
more  easily  provoked  in  later  life,  and  produced  in  him  an 
irritation  and  restless  impatience  with  the  world  and  all  its 
doings.    His  full  and  clear  gaze  was  fixed  on  the  Hereafter. 


«;6o 


CHAPTEE  YIII. 
Luther's  last  year  and  death. 

The  Emperor  Charles,  after  concluding  the  peace  of  Crespy 
with  King  Francis,  turned  his  policy  entirely  to  ecclesiastical 
affairs.  The  Pope  could  no  longer  resist  his  urgent  demand 
for  a  Council,  and  accordingly  a  bull,  of  November  1544, 
summoned  one  to  assemble  at  Trent  in  the  following  March. 
With  regard  to  the  Turks,  the  Emperor  sought  to  liberate 
his  hands  by  means  of  a  peaceful  settlement  and  conces- 
sions. He  entered  into  negotiations  with  them  in  1545,  in 
which  he  was  supported  by  an  ambassador  from  France. 
These  led  ultimately  to  the  result  that  the  Tm-ks  left  him 
in  possession,  on  payment  of  a  tribute,  of  those  frontier 
fortresses  which  he  still  occupied,  and  which  they  had  pre- 
viously demanded  from  him,  and  agreed  to  a  truce  for  a 
year  and  a  half.  '  This  is  the  way,'  exclaimed  Luther,  '  in 
which  war  is  now  waged  against  those  who  have  been 
denounced  so  many  years  as  enemies  to  the  name  of  Christ, 
and  against  whom  the  Eomish  Satan  has  amassed  such 
heaps  of  gold  by  indulgences  and  other  innumerable  means 
of  plunder.' 

Meanwhile  the  Elector  John  had  commissioned  his 
theologians  to  prepare  the  scheme  of  reformation  which  was 
to  be  submitted  according  to  the  decree  of  the  Diet  at 
Spires.  On  January  14, 1545,  they  sent  him  a  draft  compiled 
by  Melancthon.  Luther  headed  with  his  own  the  list  of 
signatures.  It  was  a  last  great  message  of  peace  from 
his  hand.  The  draft  set  forth  clearly  and  distinctly  the 
principles  of  the  Evangelical  Church  ;  but  expressed  a  hope 


LUTHER'S   LAST    YEAR  AND  DEATH.  561 

that  the  bishops  of  the  CathoUc  Church  would  fullil  the 
duties  of  their  office,  and  promised  them  obedience  if  they 
accepted  and  furthered  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  in  its 
purity.  This  was  too  moderate  for  the  Elector.  His 
chancellor  Brück,  however,  assured  him  that  Luther  and 
the  others  were  agreed  with  Melancthon,  though  the  docu- 
ment bore  no  evidence  of  '  Doctor  Martin's  restless  spirit.' 

Nor  did  Luther  even  here  insist  on  that  strong  expres- 
sion of  opinion  with  regard  to  the  Lord's  Supper  which  he 
himself  gave  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  Bodily  Presence  in 
the  Sacrament.  They  only  spoke  briefly  of  the  *  receiving 
the  true  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,'  and  of  the  object  and 
benefit  of  this  reception  for  the  soul  and  for  faith. 

But  Luther  now  unburdened  his  heart  with  redoubled 
energy  and  passion  against  the  Pope  and  the  Popedom,  of 
which  no  mention  had  been  made  in  the  draft.  In  January 
1545  he  learned  of  that  Papal  letter  in  which  the  Holy 
Father  had  protested  to  his  son  the  Emperor,  with  pathetic 
mdignation,  against  the  decrees  of  the  Diet  at  Spires. 
Luther  at  first  took  it  seriously  for  a  forgery — a  mere 
pasquinade — until  he  was  assured  by  the  Elector  of  the 
genuineness  of  this  and  another  and  similar  letter,  and 
thus  provoked  to  take  public  steps  against  it.  He  thought 
that,  if  the  brief  was  genuine,  the  Pope  would  sooner  wor- 
ship the  Tm*ks — nay,  the  devil  himself— than  ever  dream 
of  consenting  to  a  reform  in  accordance  with  God's  Word. 
Accordingly,  he  composed  his  pamphlet  '  Against  the  Pope- 
dom at  Rome,  instituted  by  the  Devil.'  In  this  his  *  rest- 
less spirit '  spoke  out  once  more  with  all  its  strength  ;  he 
poured  out  the  vials  of  his  wrath  in  the  plainest  and  most 
violent  language— more  violent  than  in  any  of  his  earlier 
writings — against  the  Antichrist  of  Rome.  The  very  first 
word  gives  the  Pope  the  title  of  '  the  most  hellish  Father.' 
Luther  is  not  surprised  that  to  him  and  his  Curia  the  words 
'  free  Christian  German  Council '  are  sheer  poison,  death, 
and  hell.     But  he  asks  him,  what  is  the  use  of  a  Council 

o  0 


562  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

at  all  if  the  Pope  arrogates  to  himself  beforehand,  as  his 
decrees  fulminate,  the  right  of  altering  and  tearing  up 
its  decisions.  Far  better  to  spare  the  expense  and  trouble 
of  such  a  farce,  and  say,  *  We  will  believe  and  worship  your 
hellship  without  any  Councils.'  The  piece  of  arch-knavery 
practised  by  the  Pope  in  himself  announcing  a  Council 
against  Emperor  and  Empire  was,  in  fact,  nothing  new. 
The  Popes  from  the  very  first  had  practised  all  kinds  of 
devihsh  wickedness,  treachery,  and  murder  against  the 
German  Emperors.  Luther  recalls  to  mind  how  a  Pope 
had  caused  the  noble  Conradin  to  be  executed  with  the 
sword.  Paul  III.,  in  his  admonition  to  his  '  son '  the 
Emperor  Charles,  referred  in  pious  strain  to  the  example 
of  Eli,  the  high-priest,  who  had  been  punished  for  not 
rebuking  his  sons  for  their  sins.  Luther  now  points  him 
to  his  own,  the  Pope's  natural  son,  whom  the  Pope  was  so 
anxious  to  enrich ;  he  asks  if  Father  Paul  then  had  nothing 
to  punish  in  him.  It  was  well  known  what  tricks  Paul 
himself,  with  his  insatiable  maw,  was  playing  together  with 
his  son  with  the  property  of  the  Church.  Further,  he  puts 
before  the  Poj)e  his  cardinals  and  followers,  who  forsooth 
needed  no  admonition  for  their  detestable  iniquities.  But 
his  dear  son  Charles,  it  seemed,  had  wished  to  procure  for 
the  German  Fatherland  a  happy  peace  and  unity  in  reli- 
gion, and  to  have  a  Christian  Council,  and,  finding  he  had 
been  made  a  fool  of  by  the  Pope  for  four-and-twenty  years, 
at  last  to  convene  a  national  Council.  This  was  his  sin  in 
the  eyes  of  the  Pope,  who  would  like  to  see  aU  Germany 
drowned  in  her  own  blood  :  the  Pope  could  not  forgive  the 
Emperor  for  thwarting  his  horrible  design.  Luther  dwells 
at  length  on  such  reflections  in  his  introduction,  and  then 
says  *  I  must  now  stop,  for  my  head  is  too  weak,  and  I 
have  not  yet  come  to  what  I  meant  to  say  in  this  treatise.' 
This  was  the  three  points,  as  follow :  Whether,  indeed,  it 
was  true  that  the  Pope  was  the  head  of  Christendom  ;  that 
none  could,  judge  and  depose  him ;  and  that  he  had  brought 


LUTHER'S  LAST  YEAR  AND  DEATH.  563 

the  Holy  Eoman  Empire  to  the  Germans,  as  he  boasted  so 
arrogantly  he  had  done.  On  these  pomts  he  then  proceeds 
to  enlarge  once  more  with  a  wealth  of  searching  proof.  On 
the  last  point  we  hear  him  speak  once  more  as  a  true 
German.  He  wished  that  the  Emperor  had  left  the  Pope 
his  anointing  and  coronation,  for  what  made  him  truly 
Emperor  was  not  these  ceremonies,  but  the  election  of  the 
princes.  The  Pope  had  never  yielded  a  hairsbreadth  to  the 
Empire,  but,  on  the  contrary,  had  plundered  it  immode- 
rately by  his  lying  and  deceit  and  idolatry.  The  book 
concludes  thus :  '  This  devilish  Popery  is  the  supreme  evil 
on  earth,  and  the  one  that  touches  us  most  closely ;  it  is 
one  in  which  all  the  devils  combine  together.  God  help  us  ! 
Amen.' 

Cranach  published  a  series  of  sketches  or  caricatures, 
controversial  and  satirical,  against  the  Popedom,  some  of 
which  are  cynically  coarse,  one  of  them  representing  to  his 
countrymen  the  murder  of  Conradin,  the  Pope  himself  be- 
heading him,  and  another  a  German  Emperor  with  the 
Pope  standing  on  his  neck.  Luther  added  short  verses  to 
these  pictures.  But  he  disapproved  of  one  of  Cranach's 
caricatures,  as  insulting  to  woman. 

We  have  seen  already  what  degree  of  importance  Luther 
attached  to  a  Council  appointed  by  the  Pope.  The  Pro- 
testants could  not,  of  course,  consent  to  submit  to  the  one 
at  Trent.  On  the  other  hand,  their  demand  that  the 
Council  must  be  a  *  free '  and  a  *  Christian '  one  in  their 
sense  of  the  terms  was  an  impossibility  for  the  Emperor 
and  the  Catholics ;  for  it  meant  not  only  their  independence 
of  the  Pope — which  he  could  never  assent  to— but  also  a 
free  reversion  to  the  single  rule  and  standard  of  Holy 
Scripture,  with  a  possible  rejection  of  tradition  and  the 
decrees  of  previous  Councils.  The  Emperor  thereupon 
granted  something  for  ajT^^earance  sake  to  the  Protestant 
States  by  arranging  another  conference  on  religion  to  be 
held  at  Katisbon  in  January  1546.     He  told  the  Pope,  in 

0  0  2 


564  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS, 

June  1545,  that  he  could  not  engage  to  make  war  on  the 
Protestants  for  at  least  another  year.  The  Council  was 
opened  m  December  1545,  without  the  Protestants  taking 
any  part  in  it. 

While  all  this  was  going  on,  the  newly-opened  rupture 
between  Luther  and  the  Swiss  remained  unhealed.  In  the 
spring  of  1545  Bullinger  published  a  clever  reply  to  his 
*  Short  Confession.'  It  could,  however,  effect  no  recon- 
ciliation, for,  mild  as  was  its  language  in  comparison  with 
the  violence  of  Luther's,  it  made  too  much  merit  of  this 
mildness,  while,  as  Calvin,  for  example,  accused  the  author, 
it  imputed  more  to  Luther  than  common  fairness  justified, 
took  him  to  task  for  his  manner  of  speaking,  and  contributed 
nothing  to  an  understanding  in  point  of  dogma.  From  the 
impression  produced  by  this  letter  upon  Luther,  fears  were 
entertained  again  for  Melancthon,  who  had  continued  to 
mxintain  a  friendly  correspondence  with  Bullinger;  and 
Melancthon  himself  felt  very  anxious  about  the  result.  But 
not  one  harsh  or  suspicious  or  unkind  word  was  uttered  by 
Luther.  He  only  wished  to  answer  the  Zürichers  briefly 
ftnd  to  the  point,  for  he  had  written,  he  said,  quite  enough 
on  the  subject  against  Zwingli  and  Oecolampadius,  and  did 
not  want  to  spoil  the  last  years  of  his  life  with  arrogant  and 
idle  chatter.  He  only  inserted  afterwards  in  a  series  of 
theses,  with  which  he  replied  in  the  late  summer  of  that 
year  to  a  fresh  condemnation  pronounced  against  him  by 
the  theologians  of  Louvain,  an  article  against  the  Zwin- 
glians,  declaring  that  they  and  all  those  who  disgraced  the 
Sacrament  by  denying  the  actual  bodily  reception  of  the  true 
Body  of  Christ  were  undoubtedly  heretics  and  schismatics 
from  the  Christian  Church.  This  doctrinal  antagonism  was 
sufficient  even  now,  when  the  test  of  actual  war  was  im- 
minent, to  keep  the  Swiss  excluded  from  the  League  of 
Schmalkald. 

Luther  still  continued,  in  the  face  of  menaces,  to  trust  in 
God,  his  Helper  hitherto,  and  he  found  in  the  latest  signs  of 


LUTHERS  LAST   YEAR  AND  DEATH.  565 

the  times  still  more  convincing  proof  of  the  End,  which 
seemed  to  be  at  hand.  In  the  miserable  oppression  of 
the  Germano-Roman  Empii^  by  the  Turks  he  saw  a  sign  of 
its  approaching  downfall,  as  also  in  the  impotence  displayed 
by  the  Imperial  Government  even  in  small  matters  of  ad- 
ministration. There  was  no  longer  any  justice,  any  govern- 
ment ;  it  was  an  Empire  without  an  Empire;  and  he  rejoiced 
to  believe  that  with  the  end  of  this  Empire  the  last  day — the 
day  of  salvation— was  approaching. 

But  more  painful  and  harassing  to  him  than  even  the 
threats  of  the  Romanists  and  the  attacks  upon  his  teaching, 
which  his  ow^n  words,  he  was  convinced,  had  long  since 
refuted,  was  the  condition  of  Wittenberg  and  the  university. 
It  was  a<  favourite  reproach  against  him  of  the  Catholics 
that  his  doctrine  yielded  no  fruits  of  strict  morality.  Not- 
withstanding all  the  rebukes  which  he  had  uttered  for  years, 
we  hear  of  the  old  vices  still  rampant  at  Wittenberg  -  the 
vices  of  gluttony,  of  increasing  intemperance  and  luxury, 
especially  at  baptisms  and  weddings  ;  of  pride  in  dress  and 
the  low-cut  bodices  of  ladies  ;  of  rioting  in  the  streets  ;  of 
the  low  women  who  corrupted  the  students  ;  of  extortion, 
deceit,  and  usury  in  trade ;  and  of  the  indifference  and  in- 
ability of  the  authorities  and  the  police  to  put  down  open 
immorality  and  misdemeanours.  Things  of  which  there 
were  growing  complaints  at  that  time  in  the  German  towns 
and  universities  became  intolerable  to  the  aged  Reformer, 
who  had  no  longer  the  power  to  bring  his  whole  influence 
to  bear  upon  his  own  fellow- townsmen. 

In  the  summer  of  1545  he  was  tortured  again  by  his  old 
enemy  the  stone.  On  Midsummer  day  his  tormentor — as 
he  wrote  to  a  friend — would  have  done  for  him  had  God  not 
willed  it  otherwise.  '  I  would  rather  die,'  he  adds,  '  than  be 
at  the  mercy  of  such  a  tyrant.* 

A  few  weeks  later  he  sought  refreshment  for  mind  and 
body  in  a  journey.  He  first  ti'avelled  with  his  colleague 
Cruciger  by  way  of  Leipzig  to  Zeitz,  where  Cruciger  had  to 


566  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

settle  a  dispute  between  two  clergymen.  On  the  road  he 
was  cordially  received  by  several  acquaintances,  and  that 
did  him  good.  At  Zeitz  he  took  part  in  the  proceedings. 
He  was  anxious  to  proceed  further,  to  Merseburg,  for  his 
friend  there,  George  of  Anhalt,  had  seized  the  opportunity 
to  send  him  a  pressing  invitation,  in  order  to  receive 
from  him  his  consecration.  But  the  painful  experiences 
he  had  made  at  Wittenberg  pursued  him  on  his  travels, 
and  were  aggravated  by  much  that  he  heard  about  his 
own  town.  On  July  28  he  wrote  from  Zeitz  to  his  wife, 
saying,  *  I  should  be  so  glad  not  to  return  to  Wittenberg  ; 
my  heart  is  grown  cold,  so  that  I  don't  care  about  being 
there  any  longer.  ...  So  I  will  roam  about  and  rather 
beg  my  bread  than  vex  my  poor  remaining  days  with  the 
disorderly  doings  at  Wittenberg,  with  my  hard  and  precious 
labour  all  lost.'  He  actually  wished  that  they  should  sell 
the  house  and  garden  at  Wittenberg,  and  go  and  live  at 
Zulsdorf.  The  Elector,  he  said,  would  surely  leave  him  his 
salary  at  least  for  one  year  more,  near  as  he  was  to  the 
close  of  his  fast-waning  life,  and  he  would  spend  the 
money  in  improving  his  little  farm.  He  begged  his  wife, 
if  she  would,  to  let  Bugenhagen  and  Melancthon  know 
this. 

The  excitement,  however,  as  might  be  hoped,  was  only 
temporary.  To  quiet  his  emotion,  the  university  at  once  sent 
Bugenhagen  and  Melancthon  to  him,  the  Wittenberg  magis- 
trate sent  the  burgomaster,  and  the  Elector  his  private 
physician  Eatzeberger.  The  Elector  also  reminded  him  in 
a  friendly  manner  that  he  ought  to  have  apprised  him 
beforehand  of  his  intention  to  take  this  journey,  to  enable 
him  to  provide  an  escort  and  defray  his  expenses.  The 
Wittenberg  theologians,  sent  as  deputies  to  Merseburg,  had 
now  arrived  there,  and  met  Luther  on  August  2,  at  the 
solemn  consecration  of  George.  Luther  stayed  with  his 
host  for  a  couple  of  days,  during  which  he  preached  in  the 
neighbouring  town  of  Halle,  and  was  here  presented  by  the 


LUTHERS  LAST    YEAR  AND  DEATH.  567 

town-council  with  a  cup  of  gold.  This  journey  improved 
his  health.  After  having  paid  a  visit  to  the  Elector,  at  his 
desire,  at  Torgau,  he  returned  on  the  16th  of  the  month  to 
Wittenberg,  where  an  attempt  was  now  being  made  to  put 
down,  by  an  ordinance  of  police,  the  immorality  he  had 
denounced. 

He  now  resumed  his  lectures,  in  which  he  w^as  still 
busily  engaged  with  the  Book  of  Genesis,  and  which  he 
brought  at  length  to  an  end  on  November  17.  He  also 
preached  at  Wittenberg  several  times  in  the  afternoons,  it 
being  unadvisable  for  him  to  do  so  any  longer  in  the  morn- 
ings on  account  of  his  health.  He  further  occupied  himself 
in  writing  a  sequel  to  his  first  book  against  the  Papacy,  and 
at  the  same  time  meditated  a  letter  against  the  Sacramen- 
tarians. 

The  autumn  of  this  year  brought  with  it  a  matter  from 
Mansfeld,  having  nothing  indeed  to  do  with  religion  or 
doctrine,  but  which  called  him  away  from  Wittenberg.  The 
Counts  of  Mansfeld  hacl  long  been  quarrelling  among  them- 
selves about  certain  rights  and  revenues,  especially  in 
connection  with  Church  patronage.  Luther  had  already 
entreated  them  earnestly  in  God's  name  to  come  to  a 
peaceful  agi'eement.  They  now  at  length  agreed  so  far  as 
to  invite  his  mediation,  and  obtained  permission  from  the 
Elector,  who,  however,  would  rather  have  seen  Luther 
spared  this  trouble.  Luther  all  his  life  had  cherished  a 
warm  and  grateful  affection  for  this  his  early  home ;  whilst 
labouring  for  his  great  Fatherland  of  Germany,  he  called 
Mansfeld  his  own  special  fatherland.  W^earied  as  he  was, 
he  resolved  to  serve  his  home  once  more. 

At  the  beginning  of  October,  accordingly,  he  journeyed 
thither  with  Melancthon  and  Jonas,  but  his  visit  proved  in 
vain,  since  the  Counts,  before  he  could  do  anything  for 
them,  were  called  away  to  war.  He  held  himself  in  readi- 
ness, however,  to  make  a  second  attempt. 

In   the   meantime  Luther    quickly   composed   another 


568  LUTHER  AND    THE   PROTESTANTS. 

pamphlet,  with  reference  to  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  who 
three  years  before  had  been  driven  from  his  country  by  the 
Landgrave  Phihp  and  the  Saxon  princes,  and  had  now 
suddenly  invaded  it  again,  but  was  defeated  and  taken 
prisoner  by  the  combined  forces  of  the  allied  princes, 
assisted  also  by  the  Counts  of  Mansfeld.  At  the  instigation 
of  the  chancellor  Brück,  and  with  the  consent  of  his  Elector, 
Luther  addressed  a  public  letter  to  the  princes  and  the 
Landgrave,  and  had  it  printed.  In  it  he  warned  them  not 
to  allow — as  Philip  for  various  reasons  seemed  inclined 
to  do — so  dangerous  a  prisoner  to  go  free,  and  thereby  to 
tempt  God.  Behind  the  Duke  he  saw  the  Pope  and  the 
Papists,  without  whom  he  would  never  have  been  able  to 
carry  on  his  campaign.  They  should  at  any  rate  wait  and 
see  until  the  thoughts  of  hearts  should  be  further  revealed. 
None  the  less  did  he  warn  the  victors  against  self-exaltation 
and  arrogance. 

Once  more  he  celebrated  his  birthday  in  the  circle  of  his 
friends,  Melancthon,  Bugenhagen,  Cruciger,  and  some 
others.  Just  before  that  day  a  rich  present  of  wine  and 
fish  had  arrived  from  the  Elector.  Luther  was  very  merry 
with  his  friends,  but  could  not  restrain  sad  thoughts  of  an 
apostasy  from  the  gospel  which  might  follow  with  many 
after  his  death. 

At  the  conclusion  of  his  lecture  on  November  17  he  said  : 
*  This  is  the  beloved  Genesis ;  God  grant  that  after  me 
it  may  be  better  done.  I  can  do  no  more — I  am  weak. 
Pray  God  that  He  may  grant  me  a  good  and  happy  end.' 
He  began  no  new  lectures. 

At  Christmas  time,  then,  and  in  the  depth  of  cold,  Luther 
journeyed  to  Mansfeld  with  Melancthon.  He  wished,  as  he 
wrote  to  Count  Albert,  to  risk  the  time  and  effort,  notwith- 
standing the  pressing  work  he  had  on  hand,  in  order  to  lay 
himself  in  peace  in  his  coffin  in  the  place  where  he  had 
previously  reconciled  his  beloved  masters.  But  his  wish  was 
not  to  be  fulfilled.     Anxiety  for  Melancthon,  who  was  ill. 


LUTHER'S  LAST    YEAR  AND  DEATH  569 

urged  him  home,  though  he  promised  to  return.  On  his 
homeward  journey,  in  spite  of  the  continued  severity  of  the 
cold,  he  preached  at  Halle,  concluding  his  sermon  with  the 
words,  '  Well,  since  it  is  very  cold,  I  will  now  end.  You  have 
other  good  and  faithful  preachers.' 

He  had  carefully  brought  his  Melancthon  home.  When 
now  the  new  conference  on  religion  was  to  be  held  at 
Katisbon,  and  a  Wittenberg  theologian  was  to  be  sent  to  it, 
he  begged  the  Elector  not  to  employ  his  friend  again  for  the 

*  useless  and  idle  colloquy,'  especially  as  there  was  not  a 
man    among    his    opponents   who   was   worth    anything. 

*  What  would  they  do,'  he  wrote,  *  if  Philip  were  dead  or  ill, 
as  indeed  he  is— so  ill  that  I  rejoice  to  have  brought  him 
home  from  Mansfeld.  It  is  his  duty  henceforth  to  spare 
himself ;  he  is  better  employed  in  his  bed  than  at  the 
Conference.  The  young  doctors  must  come  to  the  fore  and 
take  up  the  word  after  us.'  Of  his  opponents  and  their 
designs,  he  said  *  They  take  us  for  asses,  who  don't  under- 
stand their  vulgar  and  foolish  attacks.' 

He  described  his  own  condition,  in  a  letter  of  January  17, 
in  these  words :  '  Old,  spent,  worn,  weary,  cold,  and  with 
but  one  eye  to  see  with.'  He  must  have  lost  therefore  the 
sight  of  one  of  his  eyes,  but  we  know  nothing  definite 
beyond  this.  He  adds,  however,  that  for  his  age  his  health 
was  fairly  good. 

Melancthon  was  spared  a  journey  to  Ratisbon,  as  also  a 
third  visit  to  Mansfeld.  Luther  ventured  the  latter,  however, 
in  January.  He  took  with  him  his  three  sons,  together 
with  their  tutor,  and  his  own  servant,  that  they  might  become 
acquainted  with  his  beloved  native  home.  When,  shortly 
before,  some  students  at  his  table  heard  of  a  strange  and 
ominous  fall  of  a  large  clock  at  midnight,  he  said,  '  Do  not 
fear ;  this  means  that  I  shall  soon  die.  I  am  weary  of  the 
world,  so  let  us  rather  part  like  well-filled  guests  at  a 
common  inn.' 

On  the  23rd  of  the  month  he  left  Wittenberg,  where  on 


570 


LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 


Fig.  54.— Luther  in  1546.     (From  a  woodcut  of  Cranach.) 


LUTHERS  LAST    YEAR  AND  DEATH.  571 

the  previous   Sunday,  the  17th,  he  had  preached  for  the 
last  time. 

He  reached  Halle  on  the  25th,  and  stayed  with  Jonas. 
It  was  probably  then  that  he  brought  Jonas  as  a  present 
the  beautiful  w^hite  Venetian  glass,  which  is  still  preserved 
at  Nuremberg.     The  Latin  couplet  is  to  this  effect : 

Luther  this  glass,  himself  a  glass,  doth  on  his  friend  bestow, 
That  each  liimself  a  brittle  glass  may  by  this  token  know. 


I'iG.  55. — Jonas'   (jlass. 

[The  date  when  the  portraits  of  Luther  and  Jonas,  together  with  the  Latin 

verses  and  their  translation,  were  executed,  is  uncertain,     (a)  Luther. 

(Ö  h)  Translation  of  Luther's  verses,  (c  c)  '  Dat  vitrum  vitro  Jonae  ^dtrum 

ipse  Lutherus :  Ut  vitro  fragili  similem  se  noscat  uterque.'  (d)  Jonas.] 

The  breaking  up  of  the  ice,  followed  by  heavy. floods, 
detained  him  at  Halle  for  three  days.  The  very  day  after 
his  arrival  he  preached  again.  He  wrote  to  his  wife  telling 
her  he  was  cheering  himself  with  good  Torgau  beer  and 
Ehine-wine,  till  the  Saale  had  done  raging.     To  his  friends. 


572  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

however,  in  company  he  said,  '  Dear  friends,  we  are  mighty 
good  comrades,  we  eat  and  drink  together  ;  but  we  must  all 
die  one  day.  I  am  now  going  to  Eisleben  to  help  my 
masters,  the  Counts  of  Mansfeld,  to  come  to  terms.  Now 
I  know  how  the  people  are  disposed ;  when  Christ  wished  to 
reconcile  His  heavenly  Father  with  mankind,  He  undertook 
to  die  for  them.     God  grant  that  it  may  be  so  with  me  ! ' 

On  the  28th  the  travellers,  who  were  joined  by  Jonas, 
crossed  the  dangerous  rapids  formed  by  the  narrow  part  of 
the  river  Saale  below  the  Castle  of  Giebichenstein,  near 
the  town,  and  thus  on  the  same  day  reached  Eisleben, 
where  the  Counts  of  Mansfeld,  with  several  other  nobles, 
were  waiting  for  Luther.  An  escort  of  more  than  a 
hundred  horsemen  in  heavy  armour  accompanied  him  from 
the  frontier  between  the  territories  of  HaUe  and  Mansfeld. 
Just  before  entering  the  town,  however,  he  was  seized  with 
alarming  giddiness  and  faintness,  together  with  a  sharp 
constriction  of  the  heart,  and  much  difficulty  of  breathing. 
He  himself  ascribed  this  to  a  chill,  having  shortly  before 
walked  some  distance  and  then  re-entered  his  carriage  in  a 
perspiration.  At  the  village  of  Kissdorf,  near  Eisleben,  so 
he  wrote  to  his  wife  on  February  1,  such  a  bitter  wmd 
pierced  his  cap  at  the  back  of  his  head,  that  he  felt  as  if 
his  brain  were  freezing.  It  was  in  this  letter  that  he  spoke 
of  her  laughingly  as  Lady  Zulsdorf,  &c.  *  But  now,'  he 
added,  '  thank  God,  I  am  pretty  weU  again,  except  for  the 
heartache  caused  by  the  beautiful  women.'  Only  three 
days  after  this  attack  he  preached  at  Eisleben. 

Luther  was  comfortably  quartered  at  the  Drachstedt,  a 
house  which  had  been  bought  by  the  town-council,  and  was 
inhabited  by  the  town-clerk  Albert. 

The  business  was  commenced  at  once,  in  the  very 
house  where  he  was  staying.  But  it  was  a  work  of  much 
trouble  and  difficulty  for  Luther.  He  sought  one  way  after 
another  to  effect  a  reconciliation.  On  February  6  he 
begged   the   Elector   through   Melancthon  to  send  him  a 


LUTHER'S  LAST   YEAR  AND  DEATH.  573 

summons  back  to  Wittenberg,  in  order  to  put  pressure 
on  the  Counts  to  settle  their  dispute ;  and  a  few  days 
after  he  wrote  to  his  wife,  saying  that  he  should  like  to 
grease  his  carriage-wheels  and  be  off  in  sheer  anger,  but 
concern  for  his  native  town  prevented  him.  He  was 
shocked  at  the  avarice,  so  ruinous  to  the  soul,  which  either 
party  drsplayed.  He  was  angry  also  with  the  lawyers, 
for  backing  up  each  party  to  stand  so  stubbornly  on  his 
imagined  rights.  He  who  now  ought  to  have  been  a  lawyer 
himself,  came  among  them  as  a  hobgoblin,  who  checked 
their  pride  by  the  grace  of  God. 

The  multitude  of  Jews  whom  Luther  met  at  Eisleben 
and  thereabouts  were  also  an  annoyance  and  vexation  to 
him.  He  disliked  tt)  see  the  Counts  give  rooni  so  far  to 
men  who  blasphemed  Jesus  and  Mary,  who  called  the 
Christians  changelings,  and  sucked  them  dry,  nay,  would 
gladly  kill  them  all,  if  they  could.  He  warned  even  his 
congregation,  as  a  child  of  their  country,  not  to  fall  mto 
their  meshes. 

Amidst  all  this  business,  he  found  time  to  preach  four 
sermons.  He  partook  twice  of  the  sacrament,  and  con- 
fessed and  ordained  two  clergymen. 

To  his  wife,  who  worried  herself  constantly  about  him 
and  his  health,  he  wrote  from  Eisleben  five  times  in  four- 
teen days.^     His  language  to  her,  even  when  he  has  unplea- 

>  A  facsimile  of  the  longest  of  these  letters,  bearing  date  February 
7,  appears  at  the  end  of  the  volume.  It  runs  as  follows :  '  Mercy  and 
peace  in  the  Lord.  Pray  read,  dear  Katie,  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  and  the ' 
[marginally  '  little  ']  '  Catechism,  of  which  you  once  declared  that  you  your- 
self had  said  all  that  it  contained.  For  you  wish  to  disquiet  yourself  about 
your  God,  just  as  if  He  were  not  Almighty,  and  able  to  create  ten  Martin 
Luthers  for  one  old  one  drowned  perhaps  in  the  Saale,  or  fallen  dead  by 
the  fireplace,  or  on  Wolf's  fowling-floor.  Leave  me  in  peace  with  your 
cares;  I  have  a  better  protector  than  you  and  all  the  angels.  He  — my 
Protector  —lies  in  the  manger,  and  hangs  upon  a  Virgin's  breast.  But  He 
sits  also  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  the  Father  Almighty.  Rest,  therefore, 
in  peace.     Amen. 

'  I  think  that  hell  and  all  the  world  must  now  be  free  of  all  the  devils 


574  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

sant  news  to  tell,  is  always  full  of  affection,  heartiness,  and 
comfort.  The  humorous  way  in  which  he  addressed  her 
we  have  noticed  before.  He  told  her  how  w^ell  he  fares 
with  eating  and  drinking.  He  referred  her  to  her 
God,  in  Whose  stead  she  wished  to  care  for  him,  to  the 
Bible  and  the  small  Catechism,  of  which  she  had  once 
declared  that  all  it  contained  had  been  said  by  her.     He 

who  have  come  together  here  to  Eisleben,  for  my  sake  it  seems.  So  hard 
and  knotty  is  this  business.  There  are  fifty  Jews  here  too  '  [marginally  '  in 
one  house  '] ,  '  as  I  wrote  to  you  before.  It  is  now  said  that  at  Eissdorff, 
hard  by  Eisleben,  where  I  fell  ill  before  my  arrival,  more  than  four  hundred 
Jews  were  walking  and  riding  about.  Count  Albert,  who  owns  all  the  coun- 
try round  Eisleben,  has  seized  them  upon  his  property,  and  will  have 
nothing  to  do  with  them.  No  one  has  done  them  any  harm  as  yet.  The 
widowed  Countess  of  Mansfeld  (the  Countess  Dorothea,  widow  of  Count 
Ernest,  born  Countess  of  Solms),  is  thought  to  be  the  protectress  of  the 
Jews.  I  don't  know  whether  it  is  true,  but  I  have  given  my  opinion  in 
quarters  where  I  hope  it  will  be  attended  to.  It  is  a  case  of  Beg,  Beg,  Beg, 
and  helping  them.  For  I  had  it  in  my  mind  to-day  to  grease  my  carriage 
wheels  in  ird  med.  But  I  felt  the  misery  of  it  too  much  ;  my  native  home 
held  me  back.  I  have  been  made  a  lawyer,  but  they  will  not  gain  by  it. 
They  had  better  have  let  me  remain  a  theologian.  If  I  live  and  come 
among  them,  I  might  become  a  hobgoblin,  who  would  comb  down  their 
pride  by  the  grace  of  God.  They  behave  as  if  they  were  God  Himself,  but 
must  take  care  to  shake  off  these  notions  in  good  time  before  their  god- 
head becomes  a  devilhead,  as  happened  to  Lucifer,  who  could  not  remain 
in  heaven  for  pride.  Well,  God's  will  be  done.  Let  Master  Philip  see  this 
letter,  for  I  had  no  time  to  wTite  to  him ;  and  you  may  comfort  yourself 
with  the  thought  how  much  I  love  you,  as  you  know.  And  Philip  will 
understand  it  all. 

•  We  live  here  very  well,  and  the  town-council  gives  me  for  each  meal 
half  a  pint  of  "  Eeinfall  "  '  [marginally,  •  which  is  very  good  '] .  '  Some- 
times I  drink  it  with  my  friends.  The  wine  of  the  country  here  is  also 
good,  and  Naumburg  beer  is  very  good,  though  I  fancy  its  pitch  fills  my 
chest  with  phlegm.  The  devil  has  spoilt  all  the  beer  in  the  world  with  his 
pitch,  and  the  wine  with  his  brimstone.  But  here  the  wine  is  pure,  such 
as  the  country  gives. 

'  And  know  that  aU  letters  you  have  written  have  arrived,  and  to-day 
those  have  come  which  you  wrote  last  Friday,  together  with  Master  Philip's 
letters,  so  you  need  not  be  angry. 

Sunday  after  St.  Dorothea's  Day  (7  February)  1546. 

'  Your  loving 

'  Maetin  Luther,  D.' 


LUTHER'S  LAST    YEAR  AND  DEATH.  575 

had  also  dangers  to  tell  her  of,  which  had  assailed  him 
even  while  thus  under  her  care.  A  fire  chanced  to  break 
out  in  a  chimney  near  his  room  ;  and  on  February  9,  so  he 
writes  to  her,  notwithstanding  all  her  care,  a  stone  as  long 
as  a  pillow  and  as  thick  as  two  hands,  had  nearly  toppled 
dow^n  upon  his  head  and  crushed  him.  So  he  now  takes 
care  to  say,  *  While  you  cease  not  to  care  for  us,  the  earth 
at  length  might  swallow  us  up,  and  all  the  elements  destroy 
us.' 

Luther  kept  up  also  at  Eisleben  his  correspondence  with 

/^  U>>KV   U^i^yy     '^pi-^^^yN^ 

?vwv-»-»^      /y^^^^y^ft^  jn^^n^^^H^ 

Fig.  56.— Address  of  Luther's  Letter  of  February  7. 

(•  To  my  beloved  housewife,  Catharine  Lady  Luther,  Lady  Doctor,  Lady 
of  the  Pigmarket  at  Wittenberg ;  my  gracious  wife,  bound  hand  and 
foot  in  loving  service.') 

Melancthon.  He  wrote  to  him  three  letters,  the  last  testi- 
mony of  his  friendship.  A  letter  to  his  'kind,  dear  housewife,' 
and  one  to  Melancthon,  his  '  most  worthy  brother  in  Christ,' 
both  of  February  14,  are  without  doubt  the  last  he  ever 
wrote.  His  sick  body  was  well  nursed  and  tended  at  Eis- 
leben. He  went  to  bed  early  every  night,  after  he  had  stood 
before  his  window,  according  to  his  old  habit,  in  fervent 


576  LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 

prayer.  The  stone  no  longer  troubled  him,  but  he  was 
very  weary  and  worn.  His  last  sermon,  on  Sunday,  Febru- 
ary 14,  he  broke  off  with  the  words  :  *  This  and  much  more 
is  to  be  said  about  the  Gospel ;  but  I  am  too  weak,  we  will 
leave  off  here.'  Most  unfortunately  for  him,  he  had 
omitted  to  bring  with  him  to  Eisleben  the  applications 
used  for  keeping  his  issue  open,  and  now  it  was  nearly 
closed.  He  knew  that  the  physicians  considered  this 
extremely  dangerous. 

At  length  his  efforts  to  mediate  between  his  masters  the 
Counts  were  crowned  with  success  beyond  all  expectation. 
On  February  14  a  reconciliation  was  effected  upon  the  chief 
points,  and  the  various  members  of  the  Counts'  families 
rejoiced,  while  the  young  lords  and  ladies  made  merry  all 
together.  '  Therefore,'  wrote  Luther  to  Käthe,  '  it  must  be 
seen  that  God  is  Exauditor  precum.'  He  sent  her  some 
trout  as  a  thankoffermg  from  Countess  Albert.  He  wrote 
to  her :  '  We  hope  to  return  home  this  week,  if  God  will.' 

On  the  16th  and  17th  of  that  month  the  reconciliation 
upon  all  the  pomts  of  dispute  was  formally  concluded.  The 
revenues  of  churches  and  schools  were  fixed  upon,  and  the 
latter  to  this  day  owe  a  rich  endowment  to  the  arrange- 
ments there  made.  On  the  16th  Luther  says  in  his  '  Table 
Talk  ' :  '  I  will  now  no  longer  tarry,  but  set  myself  to  go  to 
Wittenberg  and  there  lay  myself  in  a  coffin  and  give  the 
worms  a  fat  doctor  to  feed  upon.' 

On  the  morning  of  the  17th,  however,  the  Counts  found 
themselves  compelled,  by  Luther's  state  of  health,  to  en- 
treat him  not  to  exert  himself  any  longer  with  their  affairs ; 
and  so  he  only  added  his  signature  where  required.  To 
Jonas  and  the  Counts'  court-preacher  Colins,  who  were 
staying  with  him,  he  said  he  thought  he  should  remain  at 
Eisleben,  where  he  was  born.  Before  supper  he  complained 
of  oppression  of  the  chest,  and  had  himself  rubbed  with 
warm  cloths.  This  relieved  him,  and  he  left  his  little  room, 
going  down  the  staircase  into  the  public  room  to  join  the 


LUTHER'S  LAST    YEAR  AND  DEATH,  577 

party  at  supper.  *  There  is  no  pleasure/  he  said,  '  in  hcing 
alone.'  At  supper  he  was  merry  with  the  rest,  and  talked 
with  his  usual  energy  on  various  subjects — now  jocular  or 
serious,  now  intellectual  and  pious.  But  no  sooner  had  he 
returned  to  his  chamber  and  linished  his  usual  evening 
prayer  than  he  again  became  anxious  and  troubled.  After 
being  rubbed  again  with  warm  cloths  and  having  taken  a 
medicine  which  Count  Albert  himself  had  brought  him,  he 
laid  himself  down  about  nine  o'clock  on  a  leathern  sofa 
and  slept  gently  for  an  hour  and  a  half.  On  awakening, 
he  arose,  and  with  the  words  (spoken  in  Latin)  '  Into  Thy 
bands  I  commend  my  spirit,  for  Thou  hast  redeemed  me, 
Thou  God  of  truth,'  went  to  his  bed  in  the  adjoining  room, 
where  he  again  slept,  breathing  quietly,  till  one  o'clock. 
He  then  awoke,  called  his  servant,  and  begged  him  to  heat 
the  room,  though  it  was  quite  warm  already,  and  then 
exclaimed  to  Jonas,  '  0  Lord  God,  how  ill  I  am  !  Ah  !  I 
feel  I  shall  remain  here  at  Eisleben,  where  I  was  born  and 
baptized.'  In  this  state  of  pain  he  arose,  walked  without 
assistance  into  the  room  which  he  had  left  a  few  hours 
before,  again  commending  his  soul  to  God  ;  and  then,  after 
pacing  once  up  and  down  the  room,  lay  down  once  more  on 
the  sofa,  complaining  again  of  the  oppression  on  his  chest. 
His  two  sons,  Martin  and  Paul,  remained  with  him  all 
night.  They  had  spent  most  of  the  time  at  Mansfeld  with 
their  relations  there,  but  had  now  returned  to  their  father 
(Hans  was  still  absent),  and  his  servant  and  Jonas.  Colins 
also  hastened  to  him,  and  the  young  theologian  John  Auri- 
faber,  a  friend  of  the  two  Counts  who  used  to  associate  with 
Luther  together  with  Jonas  and  Colins.  The  town-clerk  was 
there,  too,  with  his  wife,  also  two  physicians,  and  Count 
Albert  and  his  wife,  who  busied  herself  zealously  with 
nursing  the  sick  man ;  and  later  on  came  a  Count  of 
Schwarzburg  with  his  wife,  who  were  staying  on  a  visit 
with  the  Count  of  Mansfeld.  The  rubbing  and  application 
of  warm  cloths  and  the  medicines  were  now  of  no  avail  to 

p  p 


578  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

ease  Luther's  anguish.  He  broke  out  into  a  sweat.  His 
friends  began  to  feel  more  happy  about  iiim,  hoping  that 
this  would  relieve  him;  but  he  replied,  'It  is  the  cold 
sweat  of  death  ;  I  shall  yield  up  my  spirit.'  Then  he  began 
to  give  thanks  aloud  to  God,  Who  had  revealed  to  him  His 
Son,  Whom  he  had  confessed  and  loved,  and  Whom  the 
godless  and  the  Pope  blasphemed  and  insulted.  He  cried 
aloud  to  God  and  to  the  Lord  Jesus:  'Take  my  poor 
soul  into  Thy  hands  !  Although  I  must  leave  this  body,  I 
know  that  I  shall  be  ever  with  Thee.'  He  then  spoke 
words  of  the  Bible,  three  times  uttering  the  text  of  St.  John 
iii. :  '  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish,  but 
have  everlasting  life.'  After  Colins  had  given  him  one 
more  spoonful  of  medicine,  he  said  again,  '  I  am  going, 
and  shall  render  up  my  spirit,'  and  three  times  rapidly  in 
succession  he  said  in  Latin,  '  Father,  into  Thy  hands  I 
commend  my  spirit,  for  Thou  hast  redeemed  me,  0  Lord 
God  of  truth.'  From  that  time  he  remained  quite  still, 
and  closed  his  eyes,  without  making  any  answer  when 
spoken  to  by  those  around  him,  who  were  busy  with  re- 
storatives. Jonas  and  Colins,  however,  after  his  pulse  had 
been  rubbed  with  strengthening  waters,  said  aloud  in  his 
ear  :  *  Eeverend  father  {Reverende  pater),  wilt  thou  stand  by 
Christ  and  the  doctrine  thou  hast  preached?'  He 
uttered  an  audible  '  Yes.'  He  then  turned  upon  his  right 
side  and  fell  asleep.  He  lay  thus  for  nearly  a  quarter  of 
an  hour,  when  his  feet  and  nose  grew  cold ;  he  fetched  one 
deep,  even  breath,  and  was  gone.  It  was  between  two  and 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  February  18—  a  Thursday. 

The  body  was  laid  in  a  white  garment,  first  upon  a  bed, 
and  then  in  a  hastily-made  leaden  coffin.  Many  hundreds, 
high  and  low,  came  to  see  it.  The  next  morning  the  face 
was  painted  by  an  Eisleben  artist,  and  the  morning  after 
that  by  Lucas  Fortenagel  of  HaUe.  Fortenagel's  portrait 
is   no    doubt  a  foundation  of   all  those  which  we  find  in 


LUTHERS  LAST   YEAR  AND  DEATH.  S79 

several  places  under  Cranach's  name,  and  which  no  doubt 
really  came  from  Cranach's  studio. 

The  Elector  John  Frederick  at  once  insisted  that  the 
mortal  remains  of  Luther  should  rest  at  Wittenberg.  The 
Counts  of  Mansfeld  wished  at  least  to  pay  them  the  last 
honours.  After  they  had  been  brought,  on  the  afternoon  of 
the  19th,  into  the  Church  of  St.  Andrew,  w^iere  a  sermon 
was  preached  by  Jonas  that  day,  and  another  by  Colins  on 


Fio.  57. — Luther  after  Death.     (From  a  picture  ascribed  to  Cranach.) 

the  following  morning,  a  solemn  procession  started  at  noon 
on  the  20th,  with  the  cofi&n,  for  its  destination.  In  front 
rode  a  troop  of  about  fifty  light-armed  cavalry,  with 
sons  of  both  the  Counts,  to  accompany  the  body  to  its  last 
resting-place.  All  the  Counts  and  Countesses,  with  their 
guests,  followed  as  far  as  the  gates  of  Eisleben,  and  among 
them  was  a  Prince  of  Anhalt,  the  magistrates,  the  school- 
children, and  the  whole  population  of  the  surrounding 
country. 

pp2 


58o 


LUTHER  AND    THE  PROTESTANTS. 


In  all  the  villages  on  the  road  the  bells  tolled,  and  old 
and  young  flocked  to  join  the  procession.  At  Halle  the 
coffin  was  received  with  great  solemnity,  and  placed  for  the 
night  of  the  20th  in  the  principal  church  of  the  town. 
There  a  cast  was  taken  in  wax,  which  is  preserved  in  the 


Fig.  58.— Cast  of  Luther  after  Death.     (At  Halle. 


library  of  the  church ;  the  original  features,  however, 
having  been  altered  by  putting  in  the  eyes  and  improving 
the  shape  of  the  mouth.  To  complete  our  picture  of 
Luther's  outward  appearance,  we  have  in  this  cast  the 
remarkably  strong  brow,  which  in  Cranach's  portraits  of 
Luther  often  recedes  out  of  all  proportion  in  his  upturned 


LUTHERS  LAST    YEAR  AND   DEATH.  581 

face.  The  two  representations  of  Luther  when  dead  are  of 
great  vahie,  deej^ly  as  it  must  he  lamented  that  no  more 
skilful  hands  than  those  of  the  painter  of  Halle  and  the 
wax-modeller  have  had  the  privilege  of  working  upon  them. 

On  the  21st  the  corpse  was  taken  to  Kemherg,  after 
heing  received  at  the  frontier  of  the  Electorate  hy  deputies 
from  the  Elector.  On  the  morning  of  the  22nd  it  reached 
Wittenherg,  where  it  was  at  once  taken  to  the  Castle 
Church  in  solemn  procession  through  the  whole  length  of 
the  town.  It  was  a  long,  sad  procession.  First  went  the 
nobles  representing  the  Elector,  then  the  horsemen  from 
Mansfeld  and  their  young  Counts,  and  immediately  after 
the  coffin  the  widow  in  a  little  carriage  with  some  other 
gentlewomen.  Then  followed  Luther's  sons  and  his  brother 
James,  with  other  relatives  from  Mansfeld ;  then  the  Uni- 
versity, the  members  of  the  Town  Council,  and  all  the 
citizens  of  Wittenberg.  In  the  church  Bugenhagen  preached 
a  sermon,  i  nd  Melancthon,  who,  on  the  arrival  of  the  sad 
news,  had  expressed  his  grief  in  a  charge  to  the  students, 
gave  a  Latin  oration  as  representative  of  the  University. 
Then,  near  the  spot  where  the  great  Eeformer  had  once 
nailed  up  his  theses,  the  body  was  lowered  into  the  grave. 

Throughout  the  whole  Evangelical  Church  arose  a  cry  of 
lamentation.  Luther  was  mourned  as  a  prophet  of  Germany 
— as  an  Elijah  who  had  overthrown  the  worship  of  idols  and 
set  up  again  the  pure  Word  of  God.  Like  Elisha  to  Elijah, 
so  Melancthon  called  out  after  him,  *  Alas  !  the  chariot  of 
Israel  and  the  horsemen  thereof ! '  On  the  other  hand, 
fanatical  Papists  were  not  ashamed  to  insult  his  very  death- 
bed with  slanders  and  falsehoods;  even  a  year  before  he 
died  a  silly,  sensational  story  of  his  death  was  spread  about 
by  them. 

Luther  throughout  his  life  and  labours  had  never 
troubled  himself  much  about  the  praise  or  the  abuse  of  men. 
After  the  example  of  his  great  teacher  St.  Paul,  he  went  his 
way  in  honour  and  dishonour,  through  evil  report  and  good 


582  LUTHER  AND   THE  PROTESTANTS. 

report,  along  the  road  which  he  knew  to  be  pointed  out  from 
above.  The  portrait  of  his  Hfe,  plain  and  unadorned  as  it 
is  presented  to  the  present  age,  will  at  any  rate  testify  to 
the  worth  of  this  great  man,  and  thus  do  something  towards 
that  eternal  end  for  which  he  was  ready  to  sacrifice  his  life 
and,  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  his  honour  and  his  fame. 


APPENDIX 


584  APPEISfDIX  A 


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iiacbiiolßert)nnD 

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#erc0oer 

Facsimile  of  part  of  the  Edict  of  Worms,  8  May  (1521),  being  the 


APPENDIX  A. 


58s 


/*t)«>  ^<^^^t  öem  Mlcm  voljic^unii^  bcfcßcßc.yn&<6Wö;' 
ten  jcgcbcfi  p?crOc.  ©o  (jaben  Wir|Ö|fcn  i>ricf  mir  Mp 
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b^rc^^u/lff5e(>c^^^n^cr^  vnit>  Jm  t£inunbjwciiiQt^^, 

0cr2ln&cm  aller  Jm  ©cc^llcii  Jarcm  _    . 


title  and  conclusion  with  the  signature  of  the  Emperor  Cliartes 


APPENDIX  B. 


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4 


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